Class _I&S_2i2Z„. 
Book _£lS 



REFLECTIOMS 

UPON THE 

STATE OF RELIGION 

/JV CHRISTEjYDOM; 
PARTICULARLY in the COUNTRIES 
Situated witlmi the Limits 

OF THE 

WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE, 

AT THE COMMENCEMENT O^; 
The xixth Century of the Christian Era, 

By EDWARD EVANSON. 

_ Si quid novi/li re6lius iftis, 
Candidas imperti, fi non, his utere mecum. Ho.R, 



luirtiiiiiiiexiai^^nnaiiiiiiinuja 



?RI5fTED AND SOLD BY S. WOOLMER, FORE -STREET, E%STSR. 

Sold alfo by 

CHARLES LAW, A VE-MARIA-^A2iE, lOHDOIf. 



^BrERTl-SEMEJVT, 

Th avoid augmenting the size, and 
consequently the ex pence of this publication, the author 
has omitted to insert the text of the Apocalypse, which 
already in every body's hands. He requests the reader 
erefore, should his patience permit him to reach those 
2ges that contain his paraphrase, or explanation of the 
n^phecies of that emblematic book, to open the original 
rripture itself and to peruse it regularly as Jie proceeds, 
'hj that means he will best discern any errors into which 
Jie author, after his utmost care, may unknowingly have 
fallen ; the detection of which must ever be of the greatest 
consequence in the rational investigation of truth. 



P. S. Though it is of no importance to the argument, the Reader 
is requefted to pardon a double, grofs arithmetical error, which 
has been inadvertently fuffered to pafs the prefe, in Page 153, and 
to corre6t the fentence thus : 

Page 153, 1. 24, erafe indeed 

i. 26, for the femi-diameter of the earth fuhftitute 

1500 miles; 
I. 27, for but fmce, fubjiiiute and, 
1. 28; for 2000 put l650, and erafe the 
Between lines 28 and 29, insert but fince the whole palTage is 

figurative, the 
1. 51, for to put may perhaps 



REFLECTIOJfS 

UPON THE . 

STATE of RELIGIO^r, &c. 

ITN every fcience propofed as an obje6l worthy the 
JL ferious attention and inveftigation of the human 
mind, the firft article for the inquiry of a prudent man 
feems to be, how far it is founded in truth ; the fe- 
condj how far it is ufeful. 

In the fcience of revealed religion, provided its truth 
be fufficiently afcertained, not only its utility, but its 
infinite importance to our whole fpecies is fo very evi- 
dent, that the only thing neceffary to fecure an 
earned defire to know, and a diligent care to con- 
form our lives to , its di6lates, mull furely be our 
fatisfa6lory convi61:ion of its truth. Yet it is now 
almoft eighteen centuries fince the revelation of the 
chriftian covenant was firft promulgated to the world ; 
and its truth and divine authority are fo far from 
being univerfally acknowledged, that, in ^the fouth- 
eaftern part of Europe, as well as in all Afia and Africa, 
where it was firft preached, it has been fupplanted by 
the fabulous religion of that bold impoftor Mahomed. 
And though it is profefTed to be the national religion of 
every other part of Europe, and in all thofe Itates w hich 

A 2 are 



C 6 ] 



are comprifed within the limits of the old weftern Ro- 
man empire has been eftablifhed^ in lome one or other 
of its various forms, by the foftering and prote61:ing 
power of the civil magiflrate, during the laft 1 200 years^ 
its truth is flill fo far from having been any where clearly 
and fatisfa6loriIy afcertained, that the numerous argu- 
ments of its ableft advocates are allowed to be only an 
accumulation of probabilities in its favour. And a- 
mongft its profeflbrs, even thofe whofe peculiar office 
it is to expound and teach it to the people at Jlarge, not 
one is able to give a rational, confiftent explanation of 
the firft and fundamental articles of the theological fyf- 
tem, which they have adopted as the revealed religion 
of the Gofpel of Jefus Chrill:. Indeed they readily avow 
their utter inability, in this refpe61, by alTerting that the 
firfl: article of their belief, which defcribes the obje6l of 
their religious worfhip, and thofe of no lefs importance, 
which teach the intent and purpofe of the deity in (he 
chriftian revelation, are niysteries, which cannot be ex- 
plained, becaufe they are abfolutely incomprehenfible 
by the mind of man. 

That the temporal views and intereft of fome, and the 
power of habit and prejudice of education in all, lliould 
influence a very large majority in every country of Eu- 
rope, to acquiefce in the profeffion of their belief in fuch 
do61rines, is not at all wonderful We fee the veiy fame 
efFed produced by the fame caufes amongfl the pro- 
felToi-s of Mahomedanifm, and amongft the devotees of 
the groffeft and moft irrational idolatry in every other 

quarter 



CO 

quarter of the globe. But of the difuiterefted, unpre- 
judiced, refle6liug inhabitants of Chriflendom, whofe 
numbers have been continually increafing fnice the re- 
vival and confequent cultivation of letters, and more 
efpecially fince the era of what is called the reforma- 
tion, many have exerted that natural right or rather du- 
ty, which the reformers themfelves made ufe of with 
refpe6l to the peculiar do61;rines of the church of Rome^ 
and have brought the religious do61:rines of the pro- 
teftant churches alfo to the touchftone of reafon and 
free difcuffion. The majority of thefe, ftruck with the 
irreconcilable inconfiftencies and irrational abfurdities 
of the firll and efTential do6lrines of them all, which 
have been taught as the fundamental dodrines of chrif- 
tianity, ever fince its eftablifhment by the Emperor Con- 
flantine, and are common both to Papifts and Proteft- 
ants ; and fuppofing too haftily, that do61:rines taught 
as fuch, for fo many centuries, by a long fucceffion of 
profeffional inflruclors, many of them of difiinguifhed 
learning and abilities, muft be the real, genuine doc- 
trines of Jefus and his apoftles ; and finding them una- 
ble to abide the teft of rational inveftigation, have en- 
tirely reje6led the Gofpel itfelf, as an impofture diffimi- 
lar indeed in the original mode of its propagation, but 
'equally unfounded in truth with that of Mahomed ; and 
raflily concluding all the religions, that have ever ap- 
peared in the world, to have had no better foundation 
than the fables of ftate policy or enthufiaftic fuperfti- 
tion, difbelieve either avowedly or difguifedly all fuper- 
natural revelation. Of thefe fome are led on by a very 

obvious 



C « ] 



obvious moral argument which fliall be noticed here- 
after^ to proceed from infidelity in revealed religion to 
a dilbelief of the exiftence of the Deity himfelf 

Of the number of free and rational enquirers into the 
truth and origin of the fame do6lrines, there are, how- 
ever^ in this country^ and perhaps alfo in other parts of 
Chriitendom^ a few^ a very few^ who feeling the irrefift- 
ible weight of evidence, that arifes from the unqueftion- 
able completion of many fignal prophecies contained in 
both the Jewifh and Chriftian fcriptures^ find their faith 
fully confirmed in the truth and divine authority of both 
the Mofaic and Chriftian revelation ; although they dare 
not blafphem^oufly degrade and mifreprefent the God 
they worfhip, in contradi6lion to thofe attributes, which 
both reafon and the exprefs words of thofe revelations 
afcribe to the almighty parent of the univerfe ; nor in- 
'Cur the guilt of that veiy idolatry, which God himfelf fo 
clearly defined and fo formidably prohibited in the fe- 
cond precept of the law miraculoufly given to the Jews, 
by ereQing the edifice of their religious w^orfiiip and 
belief upon the above-mentioned fundamental tenets ot 
every eftablifiied church, and of almofi: every religious 
V feci in Europe. 

Thus, in the beginning of the nineteenth century of 
the chriftian era on furveying the ftate of religion ii^ 
every nation in Europe weft of the Adriatic, if we except 
the Jews, whofe fmgular prefervation and difperfion 
amongfl; all the nations of the globe for fo many ages^ 

raoft 



I 9 J 



moll circumftantially predicled by Mofes and their other 
prophets, affords an irrefragable proof of the truth and 
divine authority of the Mofaic revelation at leaft, we find 
the people to confifl of, fome At^eifls ; a large number 
of Theifls, diibelieving the chriflian and every other re- 
velation ; a great majority, profefTmg their belief in the 
divine origin of the Gofpel, and modelling their reli- 
gious worfhip and the effential do6lrines of their feveral 
churches and fe6ls by thofe of the church of Conftan- 
tine ; and an inconfiderably fmall remnant of firm be- 
lievers in, and adherents to the new covenant propofed 
by the Deity to mankind through the mediation of Jefus 
Chrift, who think it their duty to feparate themfelves 
from every church, by whatever authority it may be 
eflablifhed^ which they fee branded, in the very front, 
' with the ominous pretext of mystery, and whofe funda- 
mental do6lrines and mode of worfhip appear to the 
eye of reafon, examining them according to the plain 
diftates of the befl authenticated fcriptures of both the 
revealed covenants, to be both blafphemous and ido- 
latrous. 

A few mature, candid refle61:ions upon the various 
opinions of thefe unequal divifions of the inhabitants of 
European Chriflendom, may perhaps induce fome of 
thofe, who may think thefe pages deferving their atten- 
tion, to examine ferioufly and difpaffionately which of 
them are founded in error, and which in truth ; and may 
contribute, in fome degree, to enable them to condu6l 
the important inquiry to a jufl and fatisfaftory decifion. 

B The 



L 10 J 



The exiflence of a God is obvioully the full effential 
article of all religion, whether it be called natural or re- 
vealed. We will begin^ therefore, with confidering the 
avowed perfuafion of the Atheift. And, in this age. of 
ufeful and interefting philofophical experiments, whofe 
chief end is to difcover thofe proximate or more remote 
caufe or caiifes of which all the phenomena of nature 
are merely the effe61s, a perfuafion, that fuch a beauti- 
ful, beneficial, conftant concatenation of caufes and ef- 
fects exifts uTxproduced by any adequate, wife, indepen 
dent, fclf-exifling firfl; caufe, fe^ms to an unprejudiced 
mind highly unphilofophical and irrational. But to 
argue the cafe familiarly from thofe caufes and efFe61s, 
that more particularly concern ourfelves, and are im^- 
mediately the obje61s of our own fenfes and experience, 
thofe only inlets of human knowledge, let us attend to 
the two following obfervations. 

We find ourfelves here together with a great variety 
of other animals, all endowed with intelligence, though 
of different degrees, inhabitants of a globe, which makes 
part of a fyflem of globes, revolving uniformly at dif- 
ferent diflances, round the fame common centre. We 
are afTured by daily experience and the teftimony of all' 
pafl ages, that the only way, in which any individual of 
our own, or any other fpecies of animals is ever pro- 
duced, is by what we, therefore, call the natural means of 
procreation between the two fexes. But our conilant 
experience afTures us alfo, that till the fexes attain, each 
of theni, a certain ftate of maturity, they are incapable 

of 



of propagating tKeir fpecies, and that the attainment of 
fuch maturity in every fpecies requires a confiderable 
length of time, and in man feveral years. We fee alfo^ 
that almoft every animal at its firft produ6iion into life^ 
is abfohjtely helpleis, and depends fo entirely upon its 
dam for imm.ediate nourifhrnent and prefervation, that 
had the firft of each fpecies of animals been originally 
produced in that helplefs ftate, they muft all have pe- 
rifhed almoft as foon as produced ; and never could 
have arrived at that ftate of puberty, in which only the 
feveral fpecies can be propagated. Whether, therefore, 
we fuppofe the world 6000 or 6,000,000 of yeai^ old, 
the firft progenitors of mankind, and of every fpecies of 
animals exifting on the earth, muft have been originally 
produced, by fome efficient caufe, in fuch a degree of 
maturity as enabled them immediately to nourifli and 
preferve themfelves, and to propagate the firft genera- 
tion, from w^hich all others have ever ftnce regularly de- 
fcended. Did fuch an efficient caufe ever exift vvithin 
the limits of this terreftial globe, it muft ftill continue 
to exift For the energy of nature, as fome philofo- 
phers denominate the produ61:ive caufe of every thing, 
in every part of which our globe is compofed, con- 
tinuing always the fame conftant fucceffion of caules 
and effe6ls in the decay and reprodn6lion of every thing 
around us that has either animal or vegetative life, it is 
evident, has undergone no change, nor fuffered any lofs 
of power. Indeed, if the natural powders of the viftble 
material world are felf-exiftent, it is equally impoiftble^ 
that any power once inherent in matter fliould be loft^, 
and that any new one fhould be acquired. If the energy 

B 2 of 



C >2 ] 

of material nature^ therefore^ was ever capable of pro- 
ducing animals in a flate of mature puberty^ it muft ftill 
be and have always been capable of the fame produc- 
tion ; and, at certain intervals at leaft, more animals of 
every fpecies muft have been brought into exiftence in 
the fame original way. But the experience of all ages 
alTures us, that no fuch production of man or any other 
animal hath ever occurred fince our fpecies hath exifled 
upon the earth ; and, therefore, we are certain that the 
drR great efficient caufe of the exiftence of ourfelves, 
and of all that aftonifhing variety of animals and vege- 
tables with which the earth is fo abundantly ftored, muft 
be fomething diftinQ from and independent of the 
globe which we inhabit. And, befides that the feveral 
parts of the bodies of animals being fo wonderfully well 
adapted to the particular purpofes and ufes for which 
they were manifeftly intended, demonftrate clearly the 
intelligence and wifdom of the great flrft caufe of their 
formation ; fince nothing can communicate to another 
powers and faculties fuperior or even equal to what 
itfelf poflelTeth^ that fupreme firft caufe mull far excels 
in wifdom and intelle6lual powers, the wifeft and mofl 
fagacious animal it has produced. 

Again, our reafon, even in contradi6lion to the tefti- 
mony of our fenfes, convinces us that our day and night 
are produced merely by a very fwift rotary motion of 
the earth v/e inhabit round its own axis, befides which, 
it moves annually with ftill greater velocity round the 
fame common centre, about which we fee all the planets 

and 



[ IS ] 



and comets revolve in periods and orbits proportioned 
to their feveral diftances. But we know of no power 
inherent in the matter of which the earth and all the 
other globes of the folar fyftem are 'compofed^ which 
could caufe them to move in any diredion^ except the 
force of gravitation^ which could only make every orb 
of the fyftem move for a fhort time in a right line to- 
wards the common centre^ where the whole muft for 
ever remain one inert motionlefs mafs. To fuch a re- 
volutionary motion, as we fee them have, it was abfo- 
lutely neceflary that, whenever and by whatever means 
a fmall part of the matter contained in the folar fyflera 
was formed into fuch different fized globes, and fepa- 
rated from the centre and from each other, at fuch va- 
rious diftances as v/e now fee the comets and primary 
and fecondary planets to be placed, they fhould, at the 
fame inftant, be impelled by a proje61ile force in a di- 
reclion forming an exa61 right angle with the dire6lion 
in which the attradion of gravitation a61s, and with a 
velocity duly proportioned to the degree of eccentricity 
of the orbit in which each of thofe globes revolves. — 
Yet our conftant experience alTures us, that matter is 
abfolutely incapable of giving itfelf fuch a proje61:ile 
force. It muft therefore have been a^luated and IkiU 
fully impelled by fome pov/er fuperior to and^ foreign 
from itfelf. 

To underftand what kind of beins; muii have commu- 
nicated their feveral kinds and degrees of motion to 
thefe material globes, let us attend to the Jji formation 

<<iven 



C 14 ] 



^iven us through the only channels of all our knowledge 
andwifdom, the experience of our fenfes and the impar- 
tial dedu61ions of our reafon. 

Within the limits of the globe v^hich we inhabit, if 
w^e except thofe inftances of motion originating in the 
univerfal force of gravitation andattra61ion, all the loco- 
motion we experience is confined to the bodies of intel- 
ligent animals, or to thofe parts of inanimate matter to 
which they communicate it. Animals, we fee and are 
confcious in our own cafe, have power by a mere ad! of 
their will to move their whole bodies or each particular 
limb in any dire61ion, as beft fuits their convenience or 
their wants. They can alfo communicate loco-motion 
to the inert particles of matter that furround them, in 
proportion to the fagacity and intelle6lual powers with 
which they are endowed : fo that man, w^ho in fagacity 
and intelligence is far fuperior to all the other animated 
inhabitants of this globe, by calling in the aid of others 
of his own fpecies, and of the brute animals around him, 
and by a judicious application of portions even of inani- 
mate matter itfelf, enjoys the power of exciting motion 
of alnioft every kind, and in every dire61ion. With this 
experimental proof before us, that all the motion of ma- 
terial fubftances originates in the will of an intelligent 
mind, (for th^ bodies of animals when dead, that is, 
when deprived of their intelligence, are as incapable of 
moving or communicating motion as the clods under 
our feet, ) our reafon mufl conclude, that all thofe mo- 
tions, wiiich we obferve in the heavenly fpheres, and 
* know 



C 15 ] 



Iliiow to be participated by our own earthy even the im- 
pulfe of attradion or gravitation itfelf^ which is one of 
the fecondary caufes of their revokition^ originated in 
and exift only by the will of fome fupremely povv^erful, 
wife intelligence^ the great eternally exifting caufe of 
all other things. This fupreme firft caufe of all the ef- 
fe61s we perceive in the univerfe we call God. And 
till our reafon lhall induce us to deny the exiftence of 
our own intelligent mind or foul^ becaufe we cannot 
comprehend its nature^ the mode of its exiftence^ nor 
the manner in which a mere acl: of its volition puts the 
fmews and limbs of our bodies in motion^ we muft re- 
gard the man^ as a6ling irrationally^ who denies the ex- 
jflence of that great firft caufe, becaufe he cannot com- 
prehend his nature, his eternal felf-exiftence, nor the 
manner in which immaterial intelligence is capable of 
a61uating matter. 

Many more natural arguments might be adduced to 
prove the certainty of the being of a God. But till the 
Atheifl: fhall fairly refute thefe two, by demonlirating 
their fallacy or error, and deduce from reafon fupported 
by a61ual experience, a different, fatisfaftory origin of 
our own exiftence, and of the complicated revolutions 
of the heavenly bodies, and the motion of matter in ge- 
neral, they appear to be amply fufficient to convince all 
thofe whofe minds are capable of convi61ion from juft 
and candid reafoning ; and to thofe who are not, all 
farther argumentation would be ufelefs. 



We 



C IS 3 



We will proceed, therefore, to ftate fuch plain and 
rational arguments in favour of the truth and divine au- 
thority of the Mofaic and Chriftian revelations as ap- 
pear deferving to be offered to the confideration of the 
candid Theiil;. For if our reafon can be convinced that 
the Deity hath ever a6lually interpofed fo far in human 
affairs as to teach us, that we live conflantly under the 
prote6lion and controul of his providence, as abfolutely 
dependent upon his will and power, as the planets are 
for their feveral motions ; and to inform us of any part 
of his decrees refpefting the future condition of our 
fpecies either in this world, or in a ftate of renewed ex- 
iftence after death, it will fuperfede the neceflity of . 
every other _proof of his exiflence ; and will, at the 
fame time, effe6lually refute what feems to be one of 
the ftrongefl moral arguments imaginable againfl the 
being of a God, arifmg fo naturally from a difbelief of - 
fuch a revelation, that v/e need not wonder, the necef- 
farily increafing infidelity of the two laft centuries 
fhould have led many to deny, and more to doubt of, 
the exiflence of any all-wife almighty creator of the 
univerfe. I fay Lhe necefjarily increafing infidelity, be* 
caufe at what is generally called the reformation, the 
nominally chriftian church, being fplit into three lead- 
ing faQions, and thofe afterwards fub-divided into many 
different feQs, all building their religion upon the au- 
thority of the very fame canonical fcriptures, and the very 
fame fundamental do^lrines and articles of belief, yet ir- 
reconpilably hofiile to each other, became an lioiife di^ 
vided againji itfelfj which muft gradually fall in the efli- 

mation 



[ 17 ] 



mation of dirmtereftedtliinking men. The revival of 

learning in Europe having afforded greater light and 
knowledge^ and the means of equal information to b^th 
thelaitj and the clergy, the malevolence Vv^th which the 
teachers of the contending feels hurled the charges of 
impiety and antichriftianifm againft each other, and the 
implacable rancour with which they perfecuted each 
other/ wherever they had the power, could not fail to 
excite the attention of the learned and refle6ling part of 
the laity to their endlefs, uncharitable controverfies and 
animofities ; and to the origin of that religion, which 
was their avowed caufe. And when, in the courfe of 
fuch a critical examination, they obferved the very un- 
fatisfa61ory hiftoric evidence of the authenticity of the 
received fcriptures, in which alone any account of it is 
contained ; the palpable contradi6iion of many pafTages 
of thofe fcriptures to each other ; the abfurd irrationa- 
lity and even grois impiety of the definition faid to be 
founded upon them, and given by all the hoftile fe61s of 
the compound obje61, though really three dillin6l ob- j 
je6ls of their woriliip ; and above all the a61ual immo- 
rality of life, mutual hatred and perfecution of themoft 
orthodox profelTors of a religion declared to have been 
inftituted by infinite power and wifdom, on purpofe to 
produce the direct contrary elfe6ls of pra61ical moral 
virtue, gentlenefs, univerfal benevolence, harmony and 
peace ; they could not but dilbelieve and reje61 the di- 
vine authority of a revelation, whofe fole eflfe^l feemed 
to be the produ6lion of that religion, of fo very different 
a fpirit, which they faw eflablifhed and upheld all over 

C Europe, 



C >8 ] 



Europe^, merely by the civil power. And fmce the 
chriftian is evidently founded upon and reprefented as 
the ultimate completion^ and therefore the fuperfeffion 
of the Mofaic difpenfation^ they confequently rejecled 
that alfo ; and regarded the whole of divine revelation 
as fabulous and falfe. 

Arrived at this convi61ion, their train of reafoning 
needs only to be carried one flep farther to make men 
doubt of the exiftence of fuch an intelligent firfi: caufe 
as we call God^ or, at leaft;, of his fuperintending provi- 
dence over the affairs of this globe. And as in civil con- 
cerns a king log is really no king at all, fo an Epicurean 
Deity, indifferent to and regardlefs of all the affairs of 
men, is to every moral purpofe the fame as no God at 
all. It is true, the two arguments ftated above, and 
more which might be deduced from thofe things around 
us, which are fubje6led to the conftant experience of 
our fenfes, feem unanfwerable. And it appears impof- 
fible to account, with the leafi: degree of fatisfadion, for 
the ffru6lure of the planetary fyftems of the univerfe, or 
of the vegetative and animated beings with which we 
find our own planet fo plentifully and beautifully ftored, 
without acknowledging the exiftence of the fupremely 
wife and powerful divine archite6l. Yet when we ob- 
ferve how^ greatly trees and vegetables excel the lifelefs 
particles of the earth ; that intelligent loco-motive ani- 
mals as far furpafs the vegetative tribes in excellence, as 
the latter do the foil in which they grow ; and that the 
fuperior powers and faculties with which our own fpe- 

cies 



[ 19 3 

cies is endowed render man infinitely the moft excellent 
and valuable inhabitant of our globe ; when we obferve, 
that vegetables and all other animals^ in the common 
courfe of nature, arrive at the utmojfl degree of perfec- 
tion which they feem capable of attaining, before they 
begin to decay ; but that of the human fpecies, to whofe 
welfare and happinefs, and confequently to whofe ter- 
reftrial perfe6lion, a certain degree of wifdom and the 
habitual pra61ice of the moral and focial virtues is effen- 
tially necelTary, no one individual hath ever yet attained 
the utmoft proficiency in knowledge and true wifdom^ 
of which his mental faculties are capable ; whilfl a very 
large majority of mankind in every age of the world 
have hitherto lived and died in a deplorable ilate of the 
groffefl ignorance, little advanced above the brute and 
dumb animals, whom they fo greatly excel in the inva- 
luable gift of fpeech and their natural powers of intelli- 
gence ; when inftead of the general pra6lice of moral 
virtue, a temperate controul of felfifh gratifications, and 
a mutual fympathetic benevolence towards all ourfpe- 
cies, fo indifpenfably requifite to the completion of 
focial and even of individual happinefs amongft man- 
kind, we fee independent nations, whether near or re-^ 
motely fituated, almoft continually inaftate ofhoftility, 
perfecuting, injuring and deftroying each other with 
unfeeling cruelty and a favage fury, as far exceeding the 
violence of beafls of prey, as the powers of men exceed 
thofe of all other animals; and when in particular na- 
tions, inflead of feeing in all the members a generous^ 
wife, affeaionate regard to the general welfare of the 
C ^ community., 



C .0 ] 



community, we fee the few abufing the advantages they 
enjoy from accidental circiimflances to enrich, aggran- 
dize and maintain themfelves and their families in indo- 
lence and luxurious voluptuoufnefs, by means of the 
depreffion, indigence and inceffant toil of the many, 
extreme conditions of life, equally unfavourable to that 
perfe61 fanity of mind and body, which the Roman poet 
juflly accounted the principal ingredient of human fe- 
licity. When we attentively confider and reile61; on this 
ftate of human affairs, if we are perfuaded that they will 
always continue to proceed in the fame train, without 
any wifer, better motives to influence the condu6l of 
men through life ; how can fuch a vicious, lamentable 
imperfe61ion of a fpecies of animals, evidently capable 
of attaining a degree of moral and intellectual excellence 
fo fuperior to that of all the other living inhabitants of 
the earth, be reconciled to the idea that they are the 
creatures of a being of infinite wifdom and power ? 

It is of the nature of all intelligent beings, even of 
God himfelf, to be influenced by motives in all their ac- 
tions and deflgns. It is, indeed, the chara6leriftic diffe- 
rence between rational agents and machines. If the 
Deity, therefore, has not furnifhed the human fpecies 
with motives fufficient to induce them to adopt thofe 
liabits and difpofitions, and that mode of condu6l to- 
wards each other, which are neceffary to the perfe^ion 
of their well-being upon earth, or, which would amount 
to the fame thing, if thofe motives are never to produce 
their effeCl, fuch a negleCl or dereli6lion of the mofl va- 
luable 



C ^1 ] 



iuable part of the terreftrial creation^ whilfl the other 
parts^ that are inferior^ and, in the eye of reafon, far lefs 
eftimable, arrive naturally at the utmoft ftate of perfec- 
tion of which they are capable, would furely afford an ^ 
almofl infuperable, moral obje61i on againft the exigence - 
of a fupremely intelligent, omnipotent, fuperintending 
creator. But if by the partial, fupernatural revelation 
of himfelf, and the intentions of his providence refpe6l- 
ing mankind given by Mofes, in the way beft fitted to 
the nonage of human reafon, confidered in the aggre- 
gate, at that early period of the w^orld ; and by the fuller^ 
univerfally extended revelation given through Jefus 
Chrift, better fuited to that maturity of reafon and in- 
telligence, at w^hich our fpecies in general is not yet ar- 
rived, but to which it is tiow^ fail, though gradually ap- 
proaching, God hath aQually given us fuch informa- 
tion refpe6ling his nature and our own ; difclofed to us 
the decrees of his unerring wifdom concerning the fu- 
ture ftate of mankind both in this v/orld, and in a more 
exalted rank of exiflence after death, accompanied with 
fuch a continually increafmg accumulation of proofs of 
the conftant fuperintendence and controul of his provi- 
dence over all our affairs, and of our abfokite depend- 
ence upon the decifion of his impartial wdfdom for all ♦ 
the comforts and felicity of life, and even for life itfelf, 
as muft, at length, attrad univerfal, ferious attention^ 
ftrike the minds of the moll prejudiced unbelievers on 
the one hand, and of the moft bigotted flaves to irra- 
tional fuperftition on the other, with full convi61ion of ' 
the truth and vaft importance of the .information con- 

* tained 



tained in thofe divine revelations ; and induce them to 
the habitual pra6lice of every moral virtue^ efpecially 
of that mutual benevolence of difpofition in all their in- 
tercourfe with each other fo necelTary to human happi- 
nefs^ and confequcntly to the terreftrial perfedion of 
our fpecies. Then indeed that obvious moral obje61ion 
to the being of an infinitely wife and powerful God is 
entirely done away. 

An obje61:ion, indeed^ of lefs difficulty may . be fug- 
gefted ariling from a conlideration of the many genera- 
tions^ that will have paffed away in fuch a lamentable 
ilate of imperfeclion, before our fpecies in general fhall 
have attained that complete maturity of wifdom and be- 
nignity which alone can conftitute their happinefs on 
earth. And it muft appear of very great weight to thole 
who arguing from volcanic eruptions^ without any cer- 
tain, fatisfa6lory data to reafon upon, or preferring the 
fabulous hiflory of the Chinefe, which records memoir^ 
of Emperors who reigned before the moon/ to the Mo- 
faic hifcory of the world, rejecl the account given us in 
the latter of the fhort period of the earth's exiftence in 
its prefent ftate ; and conclude that it hath exifled num- 
berlefs ages in the fame ftate in which we now fee it. — 
Although the chronological account of Mofes is ftrongly 
confirmed by thofe firiking pi61:ures of the almofi: infan- 
tine fimplicity of manners of all ranks of men, in his 
times, exhibited by Homer in both his poems, of the 
faithful drawing of which the univerfal admiration and 
applaufe of that and fucceeding ages affords convincing 
t proof;- 



. [ ] 

proof; and alfo by the latenefs of the invention or 
great improvement of the moft ufeful arts of life. — 
Thofe likewife mufi: think this obje6lion confiderable, 
who have adopted an idea that the earth and all it con- 
tains will be deftroyed within the period of twothoufand 
years more. But to all who from the prefent attain- 
ments of the human intelle61, compared with thofe of 
preceding generations^ are convinced^ that the exig- 
ence of man on earth is not of more than fix thoufand 
years contiunance ; that during that period the human 
mind^ confidering our fpecies in the aggregate^ hath 
been gradually accumulating knov^ledge by the expe- 
rience of every age added to that of the preceding ; 
that it is now approaching rapidly to a ftate of rational 
manhood^ a general maturity of intelle6lual information^ 
by means of printing, and that continually increafing^ 
intercourfe and commerce which the improved art of 
navigation diffufes amongft all the nations of the globe ;. 
and who convinced that it is not the part of the fupreme 
wifdom of the Creator to deftroy the earth itfelf with 
its inhabitants^ as foon as he has gradually matured and 
perfe6led the moft excellent part of his terreflrial work- 
manlhip^ underftand the fcripture predi6lion of the en- 
tire deftru6iion of the prefent and the formation of 
new heavens and a new earth, as merely figures of fpeech 
denoting the great political and moral changes^ which 
fuch a general maturity of wifdom and virtue muft ne- 
cefTarily accomplifh in the world; and conclude that 
this globe in an ameliorated ftate of its inhabitants 
will, with the reft of the folar fyftem, continue perhaps 

for 



C ] 



for ever; the objedion will appear as trifling and weak 
as it would be to argue againfl the wildom or exifl;ence 
of the Almighty ; becaufe the acorn, inftead of pro- 
ducing a flender flowly increafmg twig, does not imme- 
diately Ihoot up into a wide-fpreading ufeful timber 
tree, or becaufe our own fpecies is not brought into ex- 
igence with the complete ftrength of their mental and 
bodily faculties, without previoufly paffing one-fourth 
part of their natural life in the infirmities^ ignorance, 

. and follies of infancy and childhood, during which more 
perifli than ever arrive at the maturity of manhood : 
that is, becaufe in the immenfe progrefTive fcale of cre- 
ated exifience there fhould be found fuch gradually ma- 
turing beings as we fee every thing upon earth to be, 
that is endowed either w^ith vegetative or animal life, 
and which feem to be the only creatures fit for the ha- 
bitation of fuch a globe as this. To fuch beings a cer- 
tain degree of perfonal experience, attentive obferva- 
tion and reflexion are necelfary to confummate the 
wifdom and knowledge of which each individual is fingly 
capable, a bufinefs for which the longeft life is infuffi- 
cient. And to the utmoll aggregate improvement of 
the mental faculties and wifdom of the human fpecies 
in general a certain combination of the knowledge of 
the belt informed individuals, univerfally diffufed, is 
indifpenfably requifite, a work not to be accomphfhed, 

- in the natural courfe of things, till after many, many 
fucceeding generations. 

Arguing therefore from the natural perfe61ibility of 
the human race, and the aclual Rate of perfedion at- 
tained 



[ ^5 ] 

tained by every other fpecies of gradually maturing 
beings around us, it is reafonable to conclude^ a priori^ 
that the Deity would fupply mankind by fome means or 
other with fuch mental information and fuch motives of 
a61ion as would, at length, lead them to the utmoft de- 
gree of terreftrial perfeclion, which he has made them 
capable of attaining. Whether or no he has really done 
fo by the means of extraordinary and confequently to 
us preternatural revelation, i$ a queftion highly deferv- 
ing the ferious confideration of every candid theilt. 

The whole tenor of the Jewilh hiftory alTures us, that 
befides prior communications to individuals for fingular 
important purpoles, fuch a revelation was given to the 
nation of the Jews in the religious covenant made with 
that people through the mediation of Mofes. And the 
Apoftles and all fucceeding preachers of the Gofpel 
affirm that another revelation, far more complete and effi- 
cacious, hasbeenfmce promulged to all the natigns of the 
earth, in the form of a new religious covenant folemnly 
ratified through the mediation of Jefus of Nazareth. 
The proper fubje6ls therefore of every rational theift's 
impartial inveliigation are, firft, whether thefe two re- 
velations taken together (for proceeding from the fame 
omnifcient, immutable being, they muft not only be con- 
fident with each other, but mufi: neceffarily form difife- 
rent parts of the fame important plan for augmenting 
the felicity and perfe6ling the nature of man during his 
prefent life,) be duly calculated to anfwer the ends pro- 
pofed, Andj fecondly, w^hether there be any fatisfac- 

D tory 



C ^6 ] 



tory evidence to convince an unprejudiced mind of 
their truth and divine authority. 

From the whole hiftory of the old covenant or reve- 
lation by the mediation of Mofes^ taking our view of 
it from the call of Abraham, it is evident, that its firfl 
and great obje6l was to reclaim one nation from that 
mifconception of the nature of the Deity and his attri- 
butes ; and from the poly theifm and idolatrous forms of 
worfhip, into which the general ignorance of mankind 
in that period of the immaturity of their reafon, and 
their fuperftitious fears the natural confequence of that 
ignorance led all the nations of the earth. That by 
their means might be preferved in the world a know- 
ledge of the only true God, with worthy ideas of his 
omnifcience, power, mercy and other attributes, and of 
the immediate dependence of all men upon his will, for 
their exiftence and the poffefTion of every comfort they 
are capable of enjoying : from which nation, as from a 
centre, in proportion to the increafing maturity of hu- 
man reafon, the fame light and knowledge might be ex- 
tended to people of other nations, and at length be uni- 
verfally difFufed. For this purpofe the Jews were 
placed in a fituation nearly central with refpe6l to the 
mofl diftinguifhed and famous nations of the globe, the 
Egyptians, AlTyrians, Perfians, Greeks and Romans ; 
with whofe feveral hiflories the hillory of the Jews, at 
different periods, is fo intimately connected, that it is 
next to impolTible, that the fingular mode of worfhip 
and opinion refpefling the Deity peculiar to the Jews 

mould 



[ 27 J 



flioulcl not have made a ftrong impreffion upon many 
refleding minds of each. And it is highly probable^ 
that the juft ideas of the unity and incorporeal nature 
of the great firft caufe of the vifible univerfe formed by 
many of the Greek philofophers^ and from them de- 
rived to thofe of Rome, were originally fuggefted by 
refle6lions upon the well-known unidolatrous worfhip 
and rational theology of the religion of the Jews. 

But as children are much more apt to imitate the 
pra6lices of thofe they fee around them, than to regu- 
late their condu^, by any precepts, fo in the early in- 
fantine flate of the human intelle6l, the Jews, notwith- 
ftanding the plain precepts and rigid injun6lions of their 
law, were ever prone to imitate and adopt the idolatrous 
rites and modes of worfliip of the nations they con- 
verfed with, which they fometimes combined with and 
fometimes preferred to that purer ritual which Mofes 
had prefcribed to them. For at that age of the worlds, 
the particular obfervance of certain days and feafons, 
and the a61:ual performance of fome formal rites and ce- 
remonies were abfolutely neceffary to keep alive a due 
religious fenfe of the invifible God ; though in ages of 
the greater maturity of human reafon they are of no 
ufe. Jufl as in the education of the uninformed minds of 
infants we find it neceffary to enjoin upon them many 
obfervances and rules of condu(51:, which it would be not 
only ufelefs but improper for them to practice in a 
ftate of manhood. The apoftle Paul therefore very 
'juftly obfervesf, that the Mofaic law compofed of all 

D 2 its 

t Ep. to the Gal. 



[ 28 ] 

its Vites and ceremonies was intended only to periorni 
the part of a fchoolmafter in edvicating the Jewifh nation 
to a maturity of manly knowledge in the new covenant 
by Jefus Chrift ; and^ that manhood being attained^ 
they had no longer need of a fchoolmafte^^ : that there- 
fore all particular obfervance of days and feafons^, an4 
all the rites and ceremonies of the old covenant^ w^ere 
for the future not only unneceffary but unfit. 

To countera£lj in the nation of the Jews^ thefe mo- 
tives by which th.-y were fo conllantly a6luated;, and 
finally to cure them of all propenfity to idolati'ous con- 
ceptions of the omnipotent Creator and idolatrous forms 
of worfhip^ they were not only^ in clear^ explicit terms^ 
informed of the incorporeaiity, invifibility and immuta- 
bility of the one^ only God^ and ftri611y prohibited from 
acknowledging any other^ and from reprefenting or 
worihiping him under any bodily form whatever : but 
the very fanftion of their religious covenant was made 
to confift in their national enjoyment of profperity and 
every temporal blefTmg, or in fuffering the greateft na- 
tional calamities and diiirefTes, even to their utter extix- 
pation from their own country,, in proportion to their 
national ooedience or difobedience to the precepts of 
that covenant \Auch. was revealed to them by the medi- 
ation of Mofes, Terms that were fo faithfully^ punc- 
tually and vv^onderfully adhered to on the part of the 
Deity^ that the Jewifti hiftory is little elfe befides a col- 
ledion of records of their frequent apoilafies from the 
great objeas of the Moi^iic covenant, and of the fevere 

infliaioiis: 



[ 29 3 



iBfliftions of that difcipline^ the end of which was to re- 
claim them efFe61:ually from all pronenefs to idolatiy, 
and through them to eflablifh in the world more worthy 
ideas of the great firft caiife of all-created exillence^ 
that grand and only pure fource of all morality^ and of 
our juft fenfe of every focial virtue. 

In the cafe of the Jev^^s^ fuch a continued fucceffion 
of feeling proofs of the interpofition of Divine Provi- 
dence in their national affairs^ in conformity to the pre- 
di61ions of Mofes and their other prophets^, from the 
firft promulgation of the old covenant to their being 
carried captives to Babylon^ and their fubfequent re- 
turn into Paleftine^ with permiffion to rebuild their 
city and temple, at length produced the eife6l for 
which it was intended • fully convinced that people of 
the truth and divine authority of their religious law^ 
and of the important necefTity of their preferving pure 
and worthy notions of the Almighty, and abllaining 
from every fpecies of polytheifm and of idolatrous wor- 
fliip even of the true God. From that time therefore 
to the prefent, the people of the Jews, however culpa- 
ble in other refpeds, have conftantly maintained juft 
ideas of the unity, incorporeity, immutability and other 
attributes of the Deity, together vv^ith the ftrongeft aver- 
lion from all idolatry ; though they have now been 
above feventeen centuries difperfed amongft all the na- 
tions of the earth, all of which, except tlic Mahome • 
dans who have derived their ideas of God from the 
Jews, have pra61iicd during that whole period, and flill 
continue to praclife fome fpecies of idolatrv. 

It 



L 30 J 



It will hardly be urged by any candid Theift that this 
great change in the religious dilpofition of the Jews 
wrought at the time of their Babylonifti captivity^ which 
has proved fo lafting upon their whole pofterity^ might 
be the effe6l of mere fuperftitious impreffions made 
upon their minds by the various cruel hardfhips they 
fufFered in the courfe of thofe feventy years ; becaufe 
fuperftition never did, nor ever can furnifh the mind 
with rational and worthy conceptions of the Deity ; and, 
inftead of curing, is neceffarily produ6live of idolatry. 
Whereas the Jews were the only people in the world, 
who were taught by their lawgiver, and who fince their 
return from Babylon have adhered to pure and becom- 
ing opinions refpe61ing the creator of the univerfe, freed 
from the alloy of all idolatrous fuperftition : a circum- 
ftance which, if confidered with all the attention it de- 
fer^'^es, affords of itfelf a very ftrong proof of the divine 
authority of the Mofaic revelation. Their late, but full, 
convi6lion could be produced only by the teftimony of 
the plain & exa6l completion of that chain of prophecies 
concerning their national affairs which pervades all their 
facred writings ; and, furely, the weight of that fpecies 
of evidence, when clearly difcerned, mult ever be not 
only fatisfa6lory but irrefiftible. For no being except the 
almighty author of that intricate and to the human mind 
inexplicable concatenation of caufes and effecls, from 
which originate all the particular circumftances and 
fituations both of nations and individuals, can in numer- 
ous fuccelTive inftances, in times and places far remote 
from each other, circumftantially predift events pyecifely 
as they will com.e to pafs. After 



[ 31 ] 



After the fair reafoning Theiil has duly attended to 
thefe prophecies, and their correfponding accomplifh* 
nients which wrought fo mighty an effeR upon the Jews, 
it will be proper for him to confider ferioufly and 
thoroughly all thofe prophecies of their fcriptures, which 
fo exprefsly predi61:ed, many centuries before the event, 
their prefent difperfion, which we behold amongi^ all 
nations, and which minutely defcribe what we are all 
witnelTes of, their living in each of that vaft variety of 
nations a people perfe6lly diftin6l from all thofe amongft 
whom they live, adhering to a religion, language and 
cuftoms peculiar to themfelves ; that there neither is nor 
has been any fimilar inftance amongft the many other 
ancient nations, w^ho have fucceffively fiourilhed in the 
world and been fucceffively deftroyed ; and yet that the 
very circumftance of their being that fingle example of a 
people fo wonderfully preferved out of all tlie various 
Hates and empires recorded in the hiftory of former ages 
is moft particularly and exprefsly predicated by their 
prophet.* 

Let the Theift next advert with due attention to thofe 
well known prophecies of Daniel, given in the explana- 
tion of the vilionary image feen by the king of Babylon 
in a dream ; and in that of the vifion of the four beafts 
feen by himfelf : prophecies molt accurately predi61ing 
the fucceffive wefterly migration of the feat of predo- 
minant civil power in tire bell informed and moft civi- 
lized countries of the known world, extending, in dura- 
tion 

*JePv. XXX. 11, ar,a xlvi, 28, 



C 3. 3 



tion of time, from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to our 
own days and to the ages yet to come ; and in fpace^ 
from the Tigris and Euphrates to the Atlantic ocean, 
that is, precifely to thofe countries of the globe where 
the Mofaic and Chriftian revelations have been more 
efpecially promulgated and made known. Let him, in 
particular, remark and compare the regular fucceffion 
of the four paramount empires^ thus foretold in the 
molt profperous ftate of the firft of them, with what we 
know from hiftory to have been the real fa61s ; a'nd ob- 
ferve, that whea human fagacity, reafoning from ana- 
logy, would have concluded, that as the fecond fuper- 
feded the firfl, the third the fecond, and the fourth the 
third, fo a fifth would have fupplanted and fucceeded 
the fourth, the prophet, on the contrary, exprefsly af- 
ferts that the fourth would be broken into feveral dif 
tin6l though homogeneous kingdoms reprefented by the 
toes of the image, and the correfponding ten horns - 
arifing from the head of the fourth beaft, exa6];ly as the 
World has feen the weftern Roman empire broken by its 
northern invaders, into feveral feparate ftates and king- 
doms, haviiig all the fame common political nature^ : 
founded in that military, feudal fyftem of which there 
had been no example in former times, and, though in- 
dependent of each other, having one general bond of 
union, by their adoption and eftablifhment within their 
feveral jurifdi61ions of the fame form and do61rines of 
religion which had been originally eftablifhed by the 
emperor Conftantine, and by their voluntary fubmiffion, 
m all ecclefiaflical concerns, to the fame fpiritual fove- 

reign. 



L J 



reign. If the Theift, when he has maturely confidered 
thefe feveral prophecies together with their exa61 com - 
pletion after intervals of fo many centuries^ is able to 
difcover or even to imagine any foiirce of human fa- 
gacity^ by which thefe prophets of old time could fore- 
fee events of fo new and uncommon a kind^ without 
recurring to the interpofition of that omnifcient beings 
who necelTarily always knows and fees all things alike, 
paft^ prefentj and to come, becaufe they muft all owe 
their exiftence folely to his will, he may then reafonably 
continue in his infidelity. But if not, unlefs he draws 
his conclufions in dire6l contradi6lion to the mofi: ob- 
vious principle of reafon and philofophy, viz. that no 
effe6l can exift without fome adequate producing caufe; 
it feems impoffible that he fliould remain unconvinced 
of the truth and divine origin of revealed religion, of 
that old covenant, at leaft, which was communicated to 
the Jewifh nation by the mediation of Mofes ; and un- 
der which thefe prophets lived and wrote their pre- 
diftions. 

If the Theift has once attained fuch a convi6lion re- 
fpe6ling the revealed religion of the Jews, in order to 
inveftigate fully the groi^mds upon which the new cove- 
nant, propofed to the world at large in the Gofpel of 
Jefus Chrift, claims his belief and acceptance as a ftill 
\ purer, more perfe6l and important revelation of the 
will of God, addreflfed not to one particular people, but 
to all the nations of the earth, who are all equally the 
offspring of the fame common creating parent ; it will 

E ' behove 



[ 34 ] 



behove him to enquire diHgently "what notices were 
given in the fcriptures of that firft revelation^ that a new 
and univerfal covenant would^ in future times^ be pro- 
mulged to the world by the agency of another media- 
tor; whether thofe prophetic premonitions have been 
completed in the perfon and gofpel of Jefus of Naza- 
reth ; and whether he hath given the world fufficient 
evidence by the criterion of completed prophecies to 
convince the candid^ rational enquirer of his own di- 
vine miffion, and the truth of that revelation^ which by 
his command, after his death, his Apoflles publifhed and 
preached to all the inhabitants of the earth. 

In the courfe of this enquiry, he will obferve, that 
though the Mofaic is the firft covenant propofed by the 
Deity to his creatures for the purpofes before-mention- 
ed through the agency of a human mediator, reference 
is frequently made in words, and conftantly by the 
pra61ice of the rite of circumcifion, to a prior religious 
covenant eflablilhed immediately with Abraham in be- 
half of himfelf and his defcendants, of which that ritual 
obfervance was to be the external fign, as the obferv- 
ance of the fabbath both of the feventh day and feventh 
year was of the covenant made with the Ifraelites by the 
mediation of Mofes. And in the very terms of the pro- 
mife repeatedly made to that Patriarch under the cove- 
nant of circumcition God plainly intim^ated, that the in- 
tent of his preternatural revelation to him was not par- 
tially confined to his pollerity alone, but calculated to 
perfeft the nature and difpofitions of the whole human 

race ; 



C 35 ] 



race ; declaring that through the mediation of one of 
his natural defcendants, every nation of the earth Ihould^ 
at lengthy be rendered happy. He will fee alfo^ that 
the bleffing to be brought upon all mankind by this 
promifed feed of Abraham relates riot to any flate of 
their exigence in a future life, but exprefsly to their 
improved Itate in the prefcnt world : for it extends only 
to all the nations of this earth. And by what means this 
flate of felicity is to be at length accomplifhed, the fub- 
fequent Jewifh prophets repeatedly inform us in terms 
ftill applicable to the preient world alone. For they 
tell us in their figurative language, that all the malevo- 
lent, ferocious paffions of men fhall be fubdued ; that 
benevolence, harmony and peace will prevail univer- 
fally throughout the world ; that no religious inftruc- 
tion will then be given nor be any longer necelTary ; 
for that all men, of all ages and clalTes, will know^ the 
only true God ; and righteoufnefs will overfpread the 
earth as the waters overfpread the fea. This bleffed 
and much to be defired reformation of the morals and 
circumftances of mankind in this life Jefus of Nazareth 
is deftined, at fome period, to efre6t, if, as the commif- 
fioned preachers of the new covenant of the Gofpel af- 
fert, he be that promifed feed of Abraham ; the Jewifh 
prophet fuch as Mofes, whofe million was predi6led 
even at the time of the promulgation of the Jewifh law ; 
the perfon intended to be conllituted the Chriit, Mef- 
fiah or anointed of God, that univerfal lord and fove- 
reign of both Jev/s and Gentiles, announced by all the 
prophets of the old covenant. 

/ . ■ E .c ' ^ The 



C 36 ] 



The chief and moft important criterion whereby we 
are direfted by Godhimfelf to judge whether he be that 
promifed prophet, who was to be the mediator and pro- 
mul^er of a new covenant and revelation of the divine 
will, is the a6liial accomplilhment of events predi6led 
by him. For we are affured, that if the things a pro- 
phet predi6ls " follow not, nor come to pafs/' God 
has not fpoken by him ; but the pretended prophet 
hath fpoken prefumptuoufly/' and is not deferving our 
regard. t And by this very criterion Jefus himfelf fub- 
mits his claim to be determined, having in the Apoca- 
lypfe, which is a feries of hiftorical predi6lions of far 
diftant events communicated in vifion to his apoftle 
John, affured both him and us, that his teftimony is 
the fpirit of prophecy." * In feveral of the Epiftles of 
his miraculoufly converted apoftle Paul too there are 
very important predidions delivered in a remarkably ex - 
preffive manner, which, as they all refer to the chief ob- 
je6l of the apocalyptic prophecies, and in no fmall de- 
gree explain the highly figurative language in which 
they are written, will neceffarily demand the rational 
inquirer's attentive confideration in conjun6lion with 
thofe contained in the prophetic vifions of John. 

Since it is notorious, that Jefus of Nazareth, during 
his mortal life, was not the Meffiah, that is, the anointed 
fovereign of any one, muchlefsof all the nations of the 
earth ; and that he did not in any fenfe accomplifh thofe 
glorious effects of the new covenant predi6led by the 
prophets of the old ; and that this is one great reafon 

why 

t Devt. Jtviii, 22 *Apoc. xix. 10. 



why the Jews, who are unconvinced of his refurreftion 
from death to a fpiritiial ftate of exiftence^ reje61: his 
Gofpel as an impofture^ thinking themfelves juftified in 
fo doings becaufe they fee not the criterion^ by which 
the Deity hath dire61ed them to diftinguifli the true 
prophet from the falfe ; it is of the greateft importance 
that the prophecies of Paul and John fhould be found 
to have been a6lually fulfilled fo far as they relate to the 
times paft and prefent ; becaufe, being delivered to the 
world as revelations communicated to thefe two apoftles 
fince his refufcitation to life and his exaltation to that 
glorious chara61:er of Meffiah or univerfal fovereign of 
the whole earth, if thofe predi6lions are found, by their 
real completion to have the genuine marks of that di- 
vine authority from which alone true predi6lions of 
fuch a kind can proceed, they muft, beyond all contro- 
verfy, eftablilhthe truth of his refurre6lion and affump-- 
tion from the earth, and the certainty of that future life, 
the promifes of which as well as of the prefent life are 
made in his Gofpel to all thofe & to thofe only, who regu- 
late their condu61: & difpofitions according to the terms of 
the new covenant ; and muft prove him to be indeed the 
expc6led Meffiah of the Jews, the extraordinary perfo- 
nage deflined, at his glorious manifeftation to the world, 
which in the chriftian fcriptures is denominated his 
coming, by the abolition of falfe religions and every 
fpecies of idolatry, and the eftablifhment of the true and 
rational religion of his Gofpel in the underflanding and 
confciences of men, to accompliih firft in thofe parts of 
the earth which are peculiarly the fubje61: of thefe pro- 
phecies. 



[ 38 ] . 

phecies, and at length throughout the whole globe that 
great moral reforhiation fo requifite to the proper men- 
tal maturity and perfe61;ion of the human ipecies ; and 
blefs the world with the enjoyment of thatftate of peace^ 
mutual benevolence and happinefs, for which God has 
fo repeatedly declared under the former covenants^ that 
he hath deftined all the nations and families of the 
earth. 

It isbut jufi; however to apprife the Theifl;^ if he be 
not already informed of it^ that this very important 
book of the Apocalyple, fo flrongly recommended to 
his attention and ferious confideration, is faid to have 
been reje61ed as a fpurious writing of no authority by 
many bifhops of the church of Conftantine in the fourth 
century. And though in the fifth it was pronounced 
authentic by another council;, and accordingly admitted 
into the number of canonical fcriptures by the Italian 
and African bifhops, and in the eighth by thofe of 
Greece and Afia, yet fome learned critics of our own 
times, for reafons arifing chiefly from the various and 
even contradi61ory explanations of its meaning fug- 
gePccd by different expofitors, feem flrongly inclined to 
adopt the opinion of the council of Laodicea, and to 
j-ejedl it as unauthentic. At the fame time thefe critics 
ought to know, that whilft they admit many other fcrip- 
tures in favour of whofe authenticity all the hifloric evi- 
dence is very defe6iive and unfatisfa61ory, and which 
contain ftrong internal proofs that they cannot be 
writings of the perfons to whom they are attributed^ 

xior 



C 39 ] 



nor even of the apoftolic age^, the Apocalyple is refer- ^ 
red to and afcribed to the apoftle John, by all the mofl 
refpe6lable remaining writers of the fecond and third 
centuries. Nay, it is obvious, that it muft have been 
written and generally well known before the pofthu- 
mous apoftle Paul wrote the beft authenticated of his 
epiftles. For he evidently alludes to it in his epiftles 
to the Corinthians, Galatians, Theffalonians and Timo- . 
thy ; and to the Corinthians and Theffalonians explains 
fome paffages of it, which from its highly figurative 
language muft in thofe early days have appeared myf- 
terious and inexplicable, and become liable to be per- 
verted, by being mifunderftood. 

Thus having, in conformity to the do61rine of the 
apocalypfe upon that fubje61:, told the Corinthians, f 
that the dead were deftined to be raifed in order, at 
three different periods— fir fl, Jefus now conftituted the 
Chrifl or predi61ed fovereign of the whole w^orld, as the 
firfl fruits; fecondly, ''thofe that are his," at th?it pe» 
riod when he fhall come with power to take upon him 
his promifed kingdom ; and thirdly, that at fome future 
period, viz. after the thoufand years predi6led by John, 
^' the end" or general i'efurre6lion would take place ; 
and having by the mofl convincing arguments fliewn, 
that thofe who are raifed cannot enjoy that future ftate 
of immortality and incorruption in fuch earthly^ cor- 
ruptible bodies as we have in this life, he proceeds to 
''JJiew them a myjiery/' that is, to explain to them a 
circumflance not revealed in the apocalyple, viz. that 

when 

1 1 Cor. XV, 



r 40 ] 



when thofe faithful difciples of Chrift, who are dead^ 
fhall be raifed with fpiritual^ incorruptible bodies, fuch 
of that chara6ler as fhall be living at the lajl trumpet 
fhall undergo an equal change to fit them for that af- 
fumption which he has defcribed to the ThelTalonians ; f 
and adds, For the trumpet /hall found, and the dead 
fhall be raifed incorruptible, and we fhall be changed." 
In thefe words the apoflle certainly could not mean to _ 
teach us that fuch things as trumpets were in ufe in hea- 
ven ; nor to excite fo ludicrous an idea as, that the Al- 
mighty would caufe the dead to rife to the found of any 
mufical inftrument. But the trumpet being peculiarly 
an inflrument of war, is ufed figuratively in the Apoca- 
lypfe to denote feven fatal wars, which were deflined to 
make important changes in the civil governments of 
the weflern part of the then known world. To the fe- 
venth or lafi: of thefe wars Paul evidently alludes in his ; 
explanation of the chriftian do6lrineof the refurre6lion. 
And his literal meaning in thefe concluding words is. 
For the feventh prediBed war Jhall ajfuredly take place ; 
at which period thofe faithful followers of Chrifl, who 
are dead, will he raifed, as foretold by John, with bodies 
incorruptible ; and they who are alive will be fo changed 
as to fit them to live for ever with the Lord. 

Jerufalem being the city where the Jewifh tribes were 
ordered to affemble, for the celebration of the feflivals 
prefcribed by the Mofaic law, and the temple there 
being the only place in which the religious rites and 

ceremonies 

t 1 Thes. iv. ir. 



C 41 ] 



ceremonies of that law were allowed to be performed, 
the city Jeriifalem became a very proper figure of fpeech 
to denote the religion of the Jews under the old cove- 
nant. Paul therefore in his epiftle to the Galatians^ 
comparing the difference between the religions of the 
two covenants to the difference between Hagar and 
Sarah, denominates that of the Mofaic covenant by the 
figurative phrafe Jerufalem, that now is, and that of the 
Gofpel covenant by Jerufalem which is above, in evident 
allufion to Apoc. xxi^ 2, where the prophet defcribes 
the final, complete eftablifhmen t of the religion of the 
chriftian covenant throughout the world by his vifion of 
the holy city, new Jerufalem coming down from God out 
of heaven. 

in I Thefs. iv^ 16, PauLalfo plainly refers to the pro- 
phetic vifion of Apoc. when he tells them, that the 
coming of the Lord Jefus as Chrifl, and the refurre6lioh 
of thofe who have died for their faith in him, will take 
place with, or rather as it is in the original, in the trump 
of God, in that period of the feventh predicted war, 
which is there faid to be proclaimed, by the loud voice 
of a mighty angel, to be the time deftined for the con- 
fummation of all thefe prophetic myfteries. And to 
prevent the Theffaionians from fuppofing that important 
day of Chrift to be then near at hand, he informs them 
in his fubfequent epiftle, that before that period there 
would be a general apoftafy of profeffed chriflians from 
the truths of the Gofpel covenant to a falfe, unrighteous 
fuperltition, which, when unrefl:rained by tha circum- 

F fiances 



C ] 



fiances that then prevented its taking place^ would pre- 
vail for a confiderable time^ and continue even to the 
diftant period of Chrift's coming ; meaning moft aflu- 
redly the catholic prevalence of that impious fyftem of 
religion fo long eftablifhed and fupported by the civil 
powers of Chriflendom^, which the prophet of the Apo- 
calypfe^ in contraft to the holy city Jenifalemy the figu- 
rative denomination of the true religion of the new 
covenant^ calls the great city Babylon^, &c. 

This fame deplorable apoftafy Paul admonifhes Ti- 
mothy of ; and moft pathetically prelamentsf . It is 
plain therefore, that the prophecies of the Apocalypfe 
preceded thefe epiftles of Paul^ which confequently 
bear a teftimony to its antiquity and authenticity, infi- 
nitely ftronger than can be produced in favour of any 
other book of the received canon. 

Indeed fince the predi6lions of Paul and John make 
up the whole of the prophecies delivered under the 
new covenant, if we except thofe foretold by Jefus 
himfelf, refpe6ling events that took place foon or not 
many years after his death, which^hough convincing to 
his difciples of thofe times cannot a^ord equal fatisfac- 
tion to the prefent age ; and fince th(\fe of Paul are on- 
ly allufions to or explanations of the prophecies of the 
Apocalypfe, either the Apocalypfe itfelf mufi: be 
an authentic prophetic fcripture, and the events pre- 

* Apoc. xvii, 5 and 18, and xviii, 2. 

t 1 Tim, iv, and 2 Tim. iii and iv; 3 and 4, 

figured 



C *3 3 

figured in the feveral vifions^ as far as they concern 
times already paft, muft have been accompliftied;, or 
chriflianity wants that teftimony of completed pro- 
phecy^ without which, God himfelf hath alTured us by 
Mofes, it is not deferving our regard. For having re- 
ferred us to the completion or non- completion of the 
prophecies he would deliver as the criterion by which 
we are to diftinguifh the true from a falfe prophet^ it 
became neceffary, that the pifophet then promifed, 
whenever he appeared^ fliould predict future events^ 
which would a61ually come to pafs. Notwithftanding 
therefore the ftrong prejudices^ which not only unbe- 
lieving Theifts but even many profefTed chriftians ap- 
pear to have formed againft it^ it is alTuredly of the very 
firfl importance, either to afcertain the impofture of 
chriflianity if falfe, or if true, to diftinguifh it from the 
fabulous fuperftition of the predi61:ed apoflafy, to exa- 
mine attentively whether any confident meaning be 
fairly and intelligibly implied by the highly figurative 
language in which the apocalyptic vifions are defcribed 
agreeably to the known ufe of fimilar figures of fpeechj 
efpecially in the prophecies of the Jewifh covenant.-— 
And whether any feries of events extending from the 
apoftolic age to our own times, and juflly correfponding 
to that meaning hath really occurred. 

If this were pofTible, it is fuppofed, that it mufl have 
been already accomplifhed by fome one, at leafl, of 
thofe numerous interpreters who have undertaken^ but 
unfuccefsfully, to give a fatisfa61ory explanation of 

¥2 John s 



L « ] 

John's prophetic vifions. But obje6lors on that ac- 
count jfhould confidei% firft, as Sir I. Newton long ago 
juflly obferved^ that from the correfponding prophecies 
of Daniel it appears, that one circumftance of the pre- 
di61ion is, that they would not even begin to be under- 
flood till near the time of their final completion. So 
that the failure or imperfe61 fuccefs of earlier expofitors 
is rather a confirmation ofj than a jufl obje61ion againft 
the truth of the Apocalypfe. And fecondly, that from the 
time of the reformation, ftruck with feveral pafTages, 
which evidently defignate the city and imperial power 
of Rome, and alfo a corrupt, apoflate church fupported 
by it, many proteflant writers have held forth the 
church of Rome to be the grand obje61 of the prophe- 
cies both of Paul and John. And it can never invalidate 
their explanation to urge, that the members of that 
church either interpret them very differently, or reje6l 
the Apocalypfe entirely, as the inexplicable reverie of 
fome vifionary enthufiaft. For were that application of 
thele prophecies to their religion by the Proteflants aver 
fo jufl, if they were not under fo ftrong a delufion as 
to be perfuaded it was the true religion of the Gofpel, 
they would without doubt immediately renounce it. 
Whilfl therefore they continue members of the church 
of Rome, they cannot underfland thofe pafTages of the 
Apocalypfe in that fenfe, or rather mufl remain inca- 
pable of underftanding them at all. And fmce we fhall 
find upon examination, that all the religions which have 
been eftablifhed by the civil power in Europe, within 
the limits of the v/eflern Roman empire^ bath before and 

fnice 



[ 45 ] 



fince the era of the reformation, are alike the corrupt, 
apoftate obje6l of this prophetic book, the members 
even of the proteftant churches, whilft they continue 
fubh, are obvioufly under a fimilar delufion to that of 
the Roman catholics-, and not apprehending their own 
. error cannot interpret it aright. Difregarding there- 
fore the infulting farcafms, which the eminently fupe- 
rior mind of Newton himfelf has not efcaped from the 
pen both of the unbelieving Voltaire, and of the ortho- 
dox, Lutheran theologian Michaelis, for his ferious atten- 
tion to it, let us briefly, but candidly and regularly perufe 
the whole of this important fcripture ; confider what 
confiftent meaning its figurative language fuggefts to us ; 
and obferve w^hat events have taken place before or 
within our own times that may be juftly deemed to have 
been intended by it. 

In the contents of this book we will not include the 
epiftles to the feven churches of Afia, for reafons given 
in another place,f to which more might be added. — 
Our inveftigation therefore will begin, where the very 
learned and fagacious Mr. Mede began his, at the com- 
mencement of the fourth chapter. And here the firft 
obfervation that occurs, and which is neceffary to be 
attended to throughout the whole is, that the celeftial 
fcene of thefe prophetic vifions correfponds clofely to 
the fcenery of the Jewifh temple, only defcribed in 
more elevated terms : fcenery the moft folemn and fa- 
cred of which the apoftle could apprehend any commu- 
nicable 

t Diffonance, &c. p. 284—28(5. 



C *6 ] 



nicable idea. And that with lingular propriety, as the 
confummation of thefe prophecies is denominated the 
harvefl and vintage of the earth, ^ the feveral aclions 
afcribed to the miniftring angels of the vifions accord 
with the rites and ceremonies obferved peculiarly by 
the officiating priefls under the Mofaic law, at the feaft 
of tabernacles, which was ordained to be celebrated in 
the feventh month, after the Jews had gathered in all 
' the produ61 of their land. The four beafts alfo fur- 
rounding the throne are emblems of the four grand di- 
vifions of the Jewifh people arranged in booths during 
that feaft on the eaft, weft, fouth and north fides of the 
temple, under the ftandards appropriated to each divi- 
lion, on which were depi61ed thofe very figures, accord- 
ing to their original arrangement by Mofes during their 
encampments in the wildernefs |. 

The vifions themfelves are divided into two - dillincl 
parts. Firfi, thofe of the crucified Jefus re-opening the 
book of prophecy reipe61ing many important future 
events, chiefly relative to the civil power of the fourth 
monarchy predi61ed by Daniel, with occafional reference 
to the future ftate of the church, which that prophet 
had been cornroaiided to feal up. And fecondly, fhofe 
of the little open book defcribed in chapter x, which 
chiefly' concern the church, with occafional notice of 
the civil power. The firft commences at chapter vi, 
and extends to chap, xi, 1 8^ The fecond begins at 
chap, xi, 19, and reaches to the end of chap. xix. Of 
* Apoc. xiv, 15, kc, I Numb. chap. 11. 

thefe 



r 47 ] 



thefe prophecies, if they are of divine authority, the 
feries of events predi61edin the firfl part muft have been 
already completed as far as to the end of the fixth verfe 
of chap, xi, as will appear in the feqiiel of this invefti- 
gation. And thofe of the fecond part, if we except the 
vi/ion of chap, xiv, as far as to the end of chap, xvii^ 
which chapter indeed is rather an explication of the 
preceding prophecies, than a prophecy itfelf. 

The chief prophecy delivered by Jefus himfelf in the 
fliort courfe of his public miniftry is that of the deftruc- 
tion of the city and temple of Jerufalem, and of the dif- 
perfion of the Jewifh nation during the exiftence of that 
generation. It might be reafonably expe6led there- 
fore, that this chain of prophetic vifions communicated 
to John fhould commence with more precife predic- 
tions refpe61:ng the particular times and circumftances 
of the completion of thofe important events. Accord- 
ingly we find the apofile called upon fucceffively by the 
four beafts reprefenting .the four divifions of the Jewifh 
nation to attend to the emblematic appearances at the 
opening of each of the four firft feals, to denote, that 
thofe vifions particularly concerned that nation. When 
the Lamb opens the firft feal, the beaft reprefenting the 
tribe of Judah with its afTociates, whofe flation was al- 
ways in the eafl, excites his attention with a voice re- 
fembling the found of thunder. In the figurative lan- 
guage of fcripture, the body politic of a nation, with its 
different ranks and orders, is fometimes defcribed by 
emblems taken from the different parts of the terreflrial 

globe, 



C 48 ] 



globe, when the mountains and hills reprefent the ele- 
vated ranks of fociety, the deprefled valleys the lower 
ordei-s^ and the waters that flow in them the great mafs 
of the inceffantly a6live, labouring people ; fometimes 
thefe emblems are taken from the appearances of the 
Ikies or heavens, in which cafe the fun, moon and ftars 
reprefent the higheft and more diftinguiflied orders of 
the ftate, and the clouds denote the common people. 
Confequently thunder, which is the alarming and fre- 
quently deftru6live found of the clouds, agitated to ex- 
plofion^ very properly fignifies the alarming uproar of 
the people excited to feditious revolt and infurrectionf . 

Such was the Hate of the Jewifh people againfl: their 
Roman governors in the latter end of the reign of Nero, 
at which period thefe prophetic vifions commence. — 
And, as all interpreters agree, the warrior riding on 
the white horfe the emblem of vi6lory is Vefpafian, who 
being fent into the eafi as commander of the armies 

againfl. 



-j- That ihis is a very natural and expreflive figure of fpeech. ap- 
pears from the ufe made of it by a celebrated French writer, in th-e 
following paffage. " En Europe les raurmures des nations precede 
de loin leur revolte. Leurs plaintes font U tonncrrt entendue dans le 
lointain. II neft point a craindre. Le fouve rain eft encore a temps 
de reparer fes injuftices & de fe reconcilier avec fon peuple. 11 neii 
eft pas de meme dans un pays delclaves. Ceft le poignard en main 
que le remontrance fe prefente au fultan. Le filence des efclaves eft 
terrible. C6ft le filence des airs avant lorage. Les vents font muets 
encore. Mais du fein noir dun nuagt immobile part le coup dc tow 
mm qui fignal de latempete, frappeau moment quil luit/' 

Helvetius De Thomme, fee. ix, ch. vii. 



L ^9 J 



againft the rebellious Jews, in the midft of his warlike 
career had the imperial diadem conferred upon him^ 
and by himfelf and his fon Titus completely Tanquilhed 
the Jewifli nation to their ruin ; and by the memorable 
fiege and deftrudion of the city and temple of Jerufa- 
lem^ accompliflied every circumftance of the prediction, 
which Luke informs us was fo pathetically delivered by 
Jefus before his death. Driven from their own country 
of Paleftine by the viftories of Vefpafian and Titus, the 
Jews took refuge, in large alTociated numbers, in Egypt 
and the adjoining provinces of Africa, and in Cyprus 
and other iflands of the Levant And even there ftill 
infatuated with expe61ations of a fpeedy deliverance 
from their fubje61ion to the Roman power, by the ap- 
pearance of the Meffiah according to the fenfe in which 
they erroneoufly underftood the language of their pro-i 
phets, under the fucceeding emperors Trajan and Ha- 
drian, they were excited to rebellions againfl the Roman 
government of the moft obflinate and formidable kind. 
This their rebellious condu61; and its fanguinary confe- 
quences to both parties is predifted at the opening of 
the fecond feal, when the beaft reprefenting the three 
tribes whofe Ration was in the v/eft, calls upon the pro- 
phet to obferve the vifion of another emperor f receiv- 
ing a great fword and riding upon a red horfe, the fit 
emblems of bloodflied and great flaughter, by which was 
prefigured the commencement of Trajan's reign. For 

t That the riding upon a diftinguifhed horse was efteemed a mark 
of regal dignity and power, see Either, vi, 8, &c. and in the forty- 
Fifth Psalm, to ride profpaoujly fignifies to reign with mighty power, 

G be 



L so ] 



he being a Spaniard was an emperor proceeding from 
the wejl ; and in his reign and that of his fucceffor fiich 
numbers of Greeks and Romans were flaughtered by the 
Jews in different places, and of the Jews by the Roman 
armies as were almofl incredible, were not the fa6^s fo 
indifputably attefted by the hillorians of thofe times. 

On the opening of the third feal John is called by the 
beaft denoting the three Jewifh tribes Ilationed in the 
fouthj to behold the next vifion of another emperor 
riding upon a black horfe, with a pair of balances in his 
hand, emblems of rigid, impartial juftice, and attended 
by a proclamation calculated to preferve a due fupply 
of corn, oil and wine ; and to regulate their diflribu- 
tion. Such an emperor was Septimius Severus, who 
being a native of Africa was an emperor from the fouth, 
and whofe reign was eminently dillinguifhed both by a 
conftant attention to the ftri61 execution of equal juf- 
tice throughout the empire ; and to the providing and 
fecuring to the people proper fupplies of thofe necef- 
fary articles of life. Under a government of fuch a 
chara6ler, one fhould think the Jews could be no other- 
wife than beneficially alfe6led, in common with all its 
other fubje61s. But Severus on feveral occafions ftiewed 
great cruelty of difpofition. And in the year 201, when 
he vifited Paleftine, Egypt, &:c. ''he publifhed an 
edid*, forbidding, under the fevereft penalties, the 
fubje61s of the empire to embrace either the Jewifh 
or Chrillian religion ; which gave rife to the fiiih 

general 



C ^1 3 

general perfecution/' as they are enumerated by 
the Chriftian writers ; but which, from the remembrance 
of their former enormities above-mentioned, it is rea- 
fonable to conclude, chiefly affeaed the Jews, and con- 
tributed ftill farther to extend their prediaed difper- 
fion. 

At the opening of the fourth feal, the emblem of the 
fourth divifion of the Jewifh tribes, which was Rationed 
. in the north, calls upon the apoftle to obferve the vifion 
of the reprefentative of the imperial power feated upon 
a pale horfe, diftinguifhed by the name of Death, and 
having the grave following him. In the figurative lan- 
guage of prophecy, the affigning a particular name to 
any perfon denotes, that the fenfe implied in that deno- 
mination will be accomplifhed in the time of that parti- 
cular perfon. Thus the mother of the child given as a 
fign to king Ahazf of the time within which he fliould 
be delivered from all caufe of apprehenfion, on account 
of his confederated enemies, is ordered to call him by a 
name fignifying God with us, becaufe within the age of 
the child there fpecified God's aid would alTuredly be 
with them to effeft that deliverance by means of the 
king of AfTyria. And, in the next chapter, Ifaiah is or- 
dered to call the fame child, at his birth, by a name 
which fignifies making fpeed to the fpoil he hajleneth the 
prey ; denoting that, within the fhort period prediaed, 
the king of AfTyria would certainly take and plunder 
both Damafcus and Samaria. In the fame manner, the 

t Isaiah vii, 

G s name 



C J 

name Death attributed to the pofTeffoF of the imperii! 
authority at the period predi61ed by the opening of the 
fourth feal denotes, that in his time a very great and 
uncommon mortality would take place in the Roman 
empire, by wars, famine and peftilence, and what is the 
natural conlequence of the two laft, by thebeafts of the 
earth. This fatal period commenced in the year 250, in 
the reign of the emperor Decius, who was not only a 
native of Pannonia, one of the mofi: northern provinces 
of the empire, but both he and Gallus, who fo foon fuc- 
ceeded him^ were advanced to the imperial dignity 
whilft they commanded the armies in the north, as Vef- 
pafian had been when he was commander of thofe in the 
^a/l. For Gibbon informs us,* that not only a long and 
general famine then prevailed, but that a furious plague 
from the year 250 to 265, raged without intermiffion in 
every part of the Roman empire ; that an exact regifter, 
which v/as kept at Alexandria, proves that above half the 
people of that city perifhed ; and affords caufe to 
pe8, that war, pejiiknce and famine had confumed in a 
few years the moiety of the human fpecies. This dread 
fulplaguej commenced in Ethiopia on the confines of 
Egypt, in thofe very provinces where the moll nume- 
rous focieties of Jews had fettled after their expulfion 
from Paleftine. And as there can be no doubt of their 
endeavouring, by removing into diftant countries, to 
efcape the fatal effects of that dire contagion, as well as 
the cruelties of the perfecution inftituted by Decius, 

* Conclufion of Ch. x. % Un. Hift. V. 15, P. 418 

and 



and continued with great rigour by Gallus, from a zeal 
for the decHning caufe of pagan polytheifm, in which, 
for the reafons before fuggefted, the Jews mu ft have 
fuffered at leaft equally with the Chriftians, thefe memo- 
rable events muft naturally have confpired to accom- 
plifh the univerfal difperfion of the Jewifh people 
anion o-ft all, even the moft remote nations of the plobe. 
In which ftate they ftill remain ; and in which they have 
ceafed to be a diftin^l fubjed of hiftory. For which rea- 
fon the opening of the following feals has no figurative 
reference to that people. 

At the opening of the fifth feal a vifion is difplayed 
reprefenting the fouls of perfoiis flain on account of 
the attachment and teftimony which they had born to 
the Gofpel as the word of God^ calling upon the omni- 
potent fovereign of the univerfe to judge and avenge 
their death. It is prophetic therefore of a period re- 
markable for the cruel and fanguinary perfecution of 
thofe w^ho faithfully adhered to chriftianity; and evi- 
dently defignates the well known violent and deflru61ive 
perfecution of the ChriftianSj inftituted in the year S03 
by Diocletian and Galerius^ which was continued with 
unexampled fury for ten years. By the gift of white 
robes emblematic of their purity and innocence, thofe 
murdered vi6lims are affured of the reward which here- 
after awaits them ; but they are informed that the con- 
fummation of the divine vengeance would not be ac- 
complifhedj until the number of their fellow-chriftians 
fhould be completed^ who were to be killed as they 
were. Here 



r S4 3 



Here it is worthy of remarkj that the Jewifli nation^ 
thofe firft perfecutors of the difciples of Jefus Chrift^ 
having l)een extirpated from J<^dea^ and their civil pow- 
er every where annihilated ; and the Roman empire, 
within whofe limits the extent of thefe prophetic vi- 
fions is confined, being upon the point of ceafing to be 
pagan, at the very time when other martyrdoms are 
thus exprefsly predi61ed, thefe future perfecutions^ of 
confcientious Chriflians could not proceed either from 
the Jews or from pagan idolaters, but from the zealou^ 
profeffors of a fyftem of religion differing from all the 
three, which as might be reafonably expe61ed, we fhall 
find very fully and particularly defcribed in the fequel 
of thefe prophecies. 

The vifion that John beheld upon the opening of the 
fixth feal is related in figurative expreifions ufed by fe- 
veral of the Jevnih prophets and by Jefus himfelf, to 
foretel the deflru^lion of the civil power and govern- 
ment of different cities and ftatesf . The fun becoming 
black and the moon of the colour of blood, is merely 
the defcription of thofe two luminaries as they appear . 
when totally eciipfed. It is therefore a very proper 
figure of fpeech to denote the total eclipfe of the go- 
verning luminaries of a flate upon the deflru61ion or 
entire change of its form of government. The commo- 
tions, under which fuch revolutions are effe61ed, are 
itly exprelTed by the concufTions of an earthquake ; as 

t See Isai, xiii, 10, xxxiv. 4. Jer. iv. 23, 24. Ez. xxxii, 7 
Joelii, 10, 31, &c. 

is 



is the fudden degradation of the moll diliinguifhed per- 
fonages in the elevated ranks of the community by the 
extin61ion of thofe meteors that appear like ilars falling 
from heaven. Such a revolution in its political power 
and fplendour did the city of Rome^ fo long miftrels of 
the civilized world experience by the emperor Conftan- 
ftine's removal of the feat of government from thence to 
Conftantinople;, in the year s 3 0. The heavens, the ruling 
powers of the empire departed from it^ and everi/ moun- 
tain and ijland, the fen ate, tribunals^, and every great 
officer of the ftate were moved out of their accuflomed 
places, For^ as Gibbon obferves*^ the foundation of 
a new capital is naturally conne61ed with a new form of 
civil and military adminiftration/' The three laft verfes 
of the fixth chapter of this prophetic book exprefs the 
alarming apprehenfion and concern of all ranks of peo- 
ple at Rome^ occafioned by fuch a portentous change^ 
in figurative terms ufed by Jefus and the Jewilh pro- 
phets for the fame purpofej ; intimating that the revo- 
lution in the civil power there predi61:ed was only the 
beginning of that deftru6live vengeance, which Chrilt 
was deftined to infii6l upon that fourth of Daniel's fuc- 
ceffive empires under all its forms, as well as upon the 
polity of the Jews. Accordingly the compilers of the 
Univerfal Hiitory have very jullly remarkedf, that " by 
this removal^ the Roman empire received a fatal ftroke^ 
and ftirunkby degrees into nothing.*' § Before 
* Ch. xvii, P. 30, 8vo ed. % Luke xxiii, 30. If. ii, 19, 21. Hof- x, 8. 

f V, 15, at the end, § It excites a smile to fee fuch men as 
SlAiop Hurd aud the hiftorian Gibbon; gravely coo.teixsplatiisg the 

destrudion 



[ 56 ] 



Before this important event took place, Conftantme 
had eftablilhed a religion throughout the empire, which 
was- then and has ever fince been called the Chriftian 
religion : a fyftem founded upon the do61rine, that the 
death of Jefus upon the crofs is a fatisfaftory atone > 
ment to the Deity for, and a complete expiation of all 
the fins of its profelTors ; and whole obje6ls of religious 
w^orfliip are logically defined in the creed drawn up by 
the council which he affembled for that purpofe at Nice 
in Bithynia. This new religious efiablifiiment, and the 
removal of the feat of civil government over the em- 
pire, were accomplifiied in a time of profound peace 
and tranquillity. And this temporary fufpenfion of the 
civil fiorms and commotions, which were deftined to ef- 
fe61 the changes and revolutions predi61ed in the fubfe- 
quent vifions of this prophetic book, is reprefen ted in 
the beginning of the feventh chapter by four angels 
refiraining the winds from blowing upon the earth. — 
During this interval, in contradifi:in6lion to that mark, 

with 

deftruclion of the weftern semi-empire by the Goths in the year 47^, 
as a surprizing, casual completion of the prophetic interpretation given 
to the omen of Roraiilii^s's twelve vultures by the augur Vettius, If 
that event had occurred not only about, but precisely at the period of 
1200 years from the building of the city, ftill it would have been no^ 
thing to the purpose; because Rome had been deprived of hev fove^ 
reivgiy nearly a century and half before. From which time lo the 
final divifion of the empire by Theodofius the repii Jiabilita Jcamna 
fof-umque quoted by the Bi/liop from Cic. de D^vin. were fixed in the 
new metropolis : and Rome herfelf was as much fubjecl to the domi- 
nion of the Court and Senate of Coiiftaatinople as Aa joch or Alex- 
andria. 



[ "J 

with which the foreheads of the fervants of the beafi: or 
civil power are afterwards faid to be branded^* a feal in 
the forehead is reprefented as being fet upon all the 
true fervants of God, that hoft of future martyrs to the 
truth of the Gofpel of Jefus Chrift, which was alluded to 
in the vifion that predicted the deaths of thofe who 
fuffered martydom under Diocletian. And from a com- 
parifon of the four laft verfes of this with the five firft 
of ch. 21, that hoft appears to include all thofe con- 
fcientious adherents to the true religion of the new co- 
venant who fhould fuffer perfecution on that account 
from the time of Conftantine to the final confummatioa 
of all the things contained in this feries of prophecies. 
But every attentive perufer of this chapter mufl ob- 
ferve, that the aflonifhing number of faithful, confcien- 
tious fervants of God, whofe perfecution and martyrdom 
are here predi61ed to happen fubfequent to the efla- 
blifhment of the new religion by Conflantine, is divided 
into two diflin6l parts ; the latter only confifting of 
Chriftians of many different nations, the virtuous difci- 
ples of the flain Lamb ; the former of Jews of every 
tribe. And every candid mind will acknowledge, that a 
virtuous Jew deftitute of the means of being rationally 
convinced of the truth of the revelation by Jefus Chrifl,. 
who from principles of confcience adheres zealoufly to 
the religion of the Mofaic law, is as juftly accounted a 
true fervant of God as the befl and moft faithful difci- 
ple of the new covenant of the Goipel. If then it fhall 
appear from the fequel of thefe apocalyptic vifions, that 

H the 
* Ch. xiii and xiv. 



r ] 

the religion ellabliihed by Conftantine, which f::om his 
time to the prefent moment has been, in all its funda- 
mental points, the only eftablifhed religion of what is 
called Chriftendom, is not the religion preached by 
Jefus and his apoflles, but the very apoftafy from it, 
that was predi6led by the apoftle Paul, the eflential te-^ 
nets of which are irreconcilable to the divine precepts 
and do^lrines of the revelation by Mofes; the infide- 
lity of the Jews, under fuch circumflances, being a vir- 
tue inftead of a crime, all of them, who have been per- 
fecuted for their adherence to the Law of Mofes, are 
with reafon here enumerated amongft the perfecuted 
Jervants of God. And that thehiflory of every country 
in Chriflendom is moft infamoufly polluted with records 
of the contumelious, cruel treatment and molt inhuman 
maffacres of that difperfed, unhappy people, is too no- 
torious to Hand in need of being proved by any parti- 
cular quotations. As to the fanguinary perfecutions of 
confcientious Chriftians themfelves within the fame li- 
mits of Chriflendom, Gibbon affures us,f that "'the 
Chrillians in the courfe of their inteftine dilfentions 
have inflifted far greater feverities on each other, than 
they had experienced from the zeal of infidels" — that 
a fyflem of peace was foon difgraced by profcriptions, 
wars, maffacres and the holy office, " and that, according 
to the teftimony of Grotius, the number of Proteflants 
who were executed in a fmgle province and a fmgle 
reign, far exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the 
fpace of three centuries and of the Roman empire." 
t Conclufion of Ch, xvi. 

The 



[ 59 ] 

The fcenery of thefe \ ifions continues to correfpond 
to that of the Jewifh temple at the feafl of tabernacles ; 
and the ceremonies related in the vifion of the eighth 
chapter to thole obferved by the priefts on the day of 
expiation and the following days: of th^ feaft. The half 
hour's filence correfponds to the ftillnefs of the temple 
whilft the high prieft, with a golden cenfer, offered in- 
cenfe upon the altar and in the holy of holies, during 
which interval the people prayed filently ; and is em- 
' blematic of the fhort tranquilHty that prevailed in the 
time of Conftantine, as the incenfe is interpreted by 
John himfelf to fignify the devout prayers of all true 
Chriftians. And by the voices, thunderings, lighten- 
ings and earthquake that followed the catling into the 
earth the fire from the great altar are prefigured the fub- 
fequent tumults, infurre6lions, wars and commotions 
wdthin the Roman empire, which introduced the revo- 
lutions that fucceffively take place on the founding of 
the feven trumpets ; and by which the world hath feeii 
the overgrown power of that empire, both in the eafl 
and wefl, utterly deflroyed. 

It is to be noted, that the feveral local origins of Da- 
niel's four paramount monarchies, proceeding in fuc- 
cefTion from eaft to wefl, are geographically diflinguifh- 
ed into three parts. The AfTyrian and Perfian having 
arifen in Afia, the Greecian in the adjoining eaflern part 
of Europe, and the Roman in Italy and the countries 
wefl of the Adriatic. Wherever therefore the third part 
of men is fpoken of, it feems natural to underltand one 

H - of ^ 



C 60 3 

of thofe divifions alone, and in general, that the inhabi- 
tants of the laft-mentioned part of Europe are princi- 
pally intended. 

The alarm of wars therefore denoted by the found of 
the trumpet of the firll angel, predi6led the hoftile inva- 
fions of Italy and the weftem empire by the Goths and 
Huns, which, in conformity to a figure of fpeech ufed 
repeatedly by the Jewifli prophets for the fame purpofe, 
are reprefented by ftorms of hail and lightening, which 
are here faid alfo to be mingled with blood, to denote 
the fanguinary devaftation made by the numerous and 
rapid incurfions of the barbarians. As natural hail- 
Horms damage chiefly the vegetable creation, the inha- 
bitants of this third part of the imperial world, which is 
particularly the fubjecl of this prophetic book, are here 
figuratively ftiled the third part of trees, and infants and 
immature children the green grafs. And every hifto- 
rian of thofe times pathetically deplores the multitudes 
of people deftroyed by the fword of thofe northern in- 
vaders. Robertfonf fays, wherever they marched 
their rout was marked with blood ; they ravaged or de- 
ftroyed all around them ; they refpefted no age, or fex, 
or rank.'' 

It is fcarcely neceffary to remark, that according to 
the figurative mode of expreffion cuftomary in the eaf- 
rern nations, all and every one or every foul mean only 
an extraordinary great number, as everlajiing and for 
ever fignify only continuing for a «very long time. Yet 

this 

t Hift, of Charles the Fifth, V. 1;P; 10; Svo. - 



C J 



this is what ought to be attended to on feveral occafions. 
in perilling this and every figuratiA^e fcripture. 

In the war predi61:ed by the found of the fecond trum- 
pet, which is defcribed by the emblem of a great burn- 
ing mountain call into the fea, is obvioufly defignated a 
naval war waged by fome great potentate upon the ma- 
ritime coafts of the wellern empire ; in which the flames 
of war may be properly faid to fall upon the fea. It 
therefore evidently foretels the naval invafion of Italy by 
the Vandals under the command of Geiiferic, whom Gib- 
bon calls the tyrant of the fea/' The dominion of that 
prince having been greatly aggrandized by his conquefl: 
of Africa, he "refolved, 'Tays the hiftorian,|* '^'^ to create 
a naval power— his new fubjecls were {killed in the arts 
of navigation and fhip-building ; he animated his da- 
ring Vandals to embrace a mode of warfare, which would 
render every maritime country acceffible to their arms ; 
the Moors and Africans were allured by the hopes of 
plunder, and after an interval of fix centuries, the fleets 
that iffaedfrom the ports of Carthage again claimed the 
empire of the Mediterranean." In their earlieU expe- 
ditions they conquered Sicily, facked Palermo, and 
made frequent defcents on the coaft of Lucania. And 
in the year 455, foon after the death of the femi-empc" 
ror Vaientinian, Genferic with a numerous fleet caft 
anchor at the mouth of the Tyber, and from Oflia ad-= 
vanced immediately to the defencelefs city of Rome,. 

X Gibbon, V. 6, P, 14-6. Svo. ' 

which 



C ] 

which^ with its inhabitants^ continues Mr Gibbon;,* 
was delivered to the licentioiifnefs of the Vandals and 
MoorS;, whofe blind paffions revenged the injuries of 
Carthage The difpofitions of this naval commander 
appears by many recorded inftances to have been fingu- 
larly cruel and fanguinary . So that^ in fuch a war as this^, 
a figurative writer might well fay^ that the European fea 
iecame hlood. And the deftru61ion of the fhipping and 
feafaring people of this third part of the imperial world 
was a circumftance inevitable. 

In chapter xvii^ i and 1 6, the angelic myftagogiie of 
thele prophetic vifions explains the figurative expref- 
fion " many waters'' to fignify peoples and multitudes 
and nations and tongues." The phrafe third part of 
therivers and fountains of waters therefore denote not 
Italy itfelf. but feveral different provinces of the weftern 
empire. And the war of the third trumpet is defcribed 
as being the fudden invafion ofthofe provinces by fome 
illuftrious warrior infiiciing upon them grievous cala- 
mities and difallers. For in all languages hitternefs and 
hitter are ufed figuratively to denote afHi6lion and grief. 
So that to weep or lament bitterly is a common phrafe in 
our own language. The northern provinces of the weft 
of Europe, in confequence of the wars predicted by the 
firfl trumpet, had been almofi: all fubdued by the diffe- 
rent leaders of the invading barbarians ; and feparated 
from the weftern empire before this period. But, after 
the paflage of the Vandals into Africa, the fouthern pro- 
* Gib. V. 6, P. 150j &c. 

vinces 



L 63 ] 



vinces of Spain and Portugal fliU remained fubjefl; to 
the dominion of Rome. About the year 46 2^ however, 
Euric king of the Vifigoths, to ufe the words of the hif- 
torian^f conceived the defign of extinguifhing the 
Roman empire in Spain/' — He palled the Pyrenees at 
the head of a numerous army^ fubdued the cities of 
Saragoffa and Pampelunaj vanquifhed in battle the - 
martial nobles of the Tarragonefe province^ carried 
his vi61orious arms into the heart of Lufitania^ and per- 
mitted the Suevi to hold the kingdom of Gallicia under 
the Gothic monarchy of Spain/' By the erection of 
which he effe61ually feparated the provinces of that 
fouth-weRern peninfula alfo from the dominion of 
Rome. 

Thus was the civil power of the weRern Roman em- 
pire gradually weakened and impaired^ and now reduced 
to the narrow limits of Italy alone. And the fourth 
trumpet defignates the ftiort but important war of the 
confederated mercenary troops under the command of 
Odoacer, who about the year 47 7 depofed AuguRulus 
the laR emperor of the weR ; ere61ed Italy into a king- 
dom^ and was proclaimed the firR king of it by the fame 
troops who had chofen him for their leader. 

This Rnal extin61ion of the imperial power in the 
* weR is prefigured in the prophetic vifion by the fun^, 
moon and Rars of the third divifion of that immenfe em- 
pire^ which once extended from the Tigris to the Atlan- 

t Gilu- V. 6, P. 20^. 

tic. 



[ 64 3 



tic, being fo fmitten as to be rendered dark ; and nei- 
ther the fuperior nor inferior himinaries of imperial go- 
vernment any longer performed their wonted functions 
within that diflri61. 

It is well worthy of remark^ that in this prophetic fe- ' 
ries of wars, by the effe8s of which the civil power of 
the Roman empire in the wefl was to be gradually but 
Utterly deflroyed^ and which the world has feen fo flri61- 
ly accomplifhed^ no effe61 is fuggefted to be produced 
by thefe invafions of the barbarous nations^, though 
many of them were pagan idolaters, upon the religion 
of the empire. And in fa6l we know, that no alteration 
was made in it. The religion eftablillied by Conflantine 
was on the contrary gradually adopted by the pagan in- 
vaders themfelves, and continued to flourifh through the 
whole of the greatefl extent that the Roman empire 
ever attained from eafl to wefl^ including the provinces 
of Africa. But in the interval between the founding of 
the four firft and the three laft trumpets in this vifion, 
an angel is reprefented proclaiming aloud, Wo, wo, 
wo to the inhabitants of the earth/' that is, of all 
the countries contained within the utmofl bounds of the 
empire, from the effefts of the wars of the three trum- 
pets that yet remained to be founded. By this there- 
fore fomething more mull be intimated than had been 
effeded by the wars predided by the four which had 
been already founded. Accordingly, in our continua- 
tion of thisrefearch we fli all find, that though the former 
predifted wars affefted the civil power alone, thofe of 

the 



[ ] 



the three lafl trumpets are deftined to accomplifh the 
overthrow not only of the remaining civil power of the 
Roman empire, but of its ecclefiaftical efiablifhment aifo ; 
and at length the utter deftru6lion ^of the predi61;ed 
apollate church. 

The wars intended by the founding of the fifth and 
fixth trumpets ha\ e been fo fatisfa61:orily explained by 
Mede and all the mofi: refpedable fucceeding interpre- 
ters of the apocalypfe to denote, the fifth the invafion 
and diminution of the eall:ern empire by the Arabian 
fucceffors of Mahomed ; and the fixth the wars of the 
Turks againfl: the fame empire ; that it is needlefs here 
to expatiate much upon them. Arabia is fo peculiarly 
the country of locufls; and a flight of locufts fo well 
known a type of a numerous, rapid, deftru61ive army 
adopted in the WTitings of the old prophets ; that, with- 
out doubt, the invafion of the Mahomedans under the 
Saracen Caliphs are prefigured by the defcription which 
immediately follows the founding the fifth trumpet. 
Under the apt figure of a fliort-lived meteor, which is 
vulgarly denominated a falling ftar, Mahomed is repre- 
fented as being permitted to open the hottomlefs pit of 
falfehood and impofture. And the falfe religion that 
arofe from him^ inftead of illuminating, which is the ef- 
fential property of every revelation that proceeds from 
God the fountain of light, is typified by a cloud of fmoke 
which obfcured, at the fame time that it overfpread the 
country of Arabia. From the midfi of this fmoke^ 
that is, from out of the people whofe minds were dark- 

I ened 



r 66 ] 



ened with the new religion of Mahomed^ proceeded thofc 
numerous-, rapid and deftru6live armies of Saracens^ who 
unlike the former invaders of the empire from the na- 
tions of the north fupplanted^ in every province they 
conquered, the religion eftablilhed by Conftantine by 
the propagation of that of the Koran^ and who unlike 
them too, according to the terms of the predi6lion, did 
not hurt the grafs nor green herbs, the infants and young 
people, nor even any trees, that is, people of mature age, 
w^ho did not combat againfl: them, except the members 
of the apoftate church who were not marked as the fer- 
vants of God in the fealing defcribed in the feventh 
chapter. And even thefe when unrefifting they did not 
deprive of life ; but by the miferies of captivity and the 
oppreffive exa6lions of great tribute fo grievouJfly tor- 
mented f them, as in many inftances to render life lefs 
defirable than death itfelf 

In this book of prophetic vifions, in that of Daniel, a 
day is ufed to fignify a year. The five months, therefore, 
during which the power of the Saracens was to profper 
and prevail againft the eaftern empire, are equivalent to 

150 

t Because of their extraordinary^n^er thus to torment the people 
they yanquifhed, these locusts are said also to resemble scorpions. As 
for the same reason, in the vision of the next trumpet, the Turkish ar- 
mies are said to be like serpents, vr^iich was a common eastern phrase 
to denote noxious and dangerous enemies : as appears by the advice of 
the Omrahs of the Turkish Saltan Massoud^ quoted by Gibbon, 
C, 57, P. 343, Your enemies were m their origin a swarm of ants ; 
*' they are now little snakes ; and unless they be instantly crushed^ they 

will acquire the venom and magnitude of serpents." ^ 



1 50 years. A period which commenced in the year 63 2 
with their invafion of Syria^ capture of Bofra, and 
the confequent fiege of Damafcus, and ended in 
78^, when Harun;, afterwards denominated al Rafhid, 
made the laft fuccefsful invafion of that nation upon the 
Afiatic provinces of the empire bordering upon the 
Hellefpont. Yet within that period the Saracens de- 
fpoiled the empire of the greateft part of its Afiatic and 
all its African provinces ; and efi:abliftied the religion of 
Mahomed in all thofe regions where the covenant of the 
Gofpel of Chrifi; had been firfi: promulgated to the world. 

Upon the accomplifliment of this tw^o-fold^ extenfive 
defl:ru61ion of both the civil and ecclefiafl:ical efiablifh- 
ments of the Roman empire in Afia and Africa^ the 
prophet informs us, that the jfirji wo, denounced by 
the angel in the preceding chapter, was completed, and 
that two others were to follow. 

Tlie founding of ihe fixth trumpet is alfo juftly inter- 
preted as prophetic of the wars of the Turkifh Mahome- 
dans againfi: the eaftern Roman empire. The four prin- 
cipal tribes of the Turks had fettled themfelves. in the 
countries eafl: of the Euphrates. And in this vifion it is 
ordered that they fhould no longer be refi:rained beyond 
the banks of that river; but be prepared within the 
cxa6l period of 3 96 years, to defi;roy the civil power of 
the Grecian, the only remaining third part of the once 
fo widely extended Roman empire. For, taking a day 
for a year according to the ufual ftyle qf prophecy, and 
I 3 computing 



C 68 3 

computing by the Calendar of Julius Csefar, which was the 
onl}' mode of computation then in ufe^ 3 96 years is the 
precife amount of the words c2 day, a month, and a. year.^' 
Accordingly, in the year 105 7^ as Mede hath well ob- 
ferved, the Turkifh Sultan Togrul Beg was invefted by 
the Caliph of Bagdat with the regal power of the coun- 
tries both weft and eaft of the Euphrates. And by the 
year 1080, the four predi6led Turkifli Chieftains reigned 
at Bagdat, Damafcus, Aleppo and Iconium. United af- 
terwards under the family of Othman, they eftabliflied 
themfelves in Europe, in the city of Adrianople ; and 
in the year 1453, juft S96 years from the inveftiture of 
Togrul Beg, after a memorable fiege o^ 63 days, put an 
end to the Roman empire in the eall by the capture of 
Conltantinople. In this fiege the Turks made very im- 
portant ufe of the recent invention of gunpowder and 

large 

* Bishop Newton not considering that though in the age %vhen Daniel 
wrote, the year was reckoned to consist of on)}' 360 days, after the 
Julian Cjalandar became the rule of computing time throughout th§ 
empire, which was the case long before John wrote the Apocalypse, 
the year was necessarily accounted to contain 365 days, has thought 
proper to rejed INIede's very satisfactory explication of the Chronolo- 
gical completion of this prophecy ; and given us a different date for the 
Commencement of the Turkish power on this side the Euphrates, con- 
trary to historical fads, in order to bring down the 591 years, as he 
reckoris them, to the taking of Caraiuieck by the Turks in the year l672. 
But Poland was never within the limits of the Roman empire, to which 
alone the scope of these prophetic visions is confined. And as the 
gradual extinction of the western empire was the event predided by the 
sounding of the four first trumpets, it is highly reasonable to conclude, 
that the final destruction of the eastern empire was to be accomplished 
by the wars of the two next. - 



C 69 ] 



large pieces of artillery^ here figuratively exprefled by 
mouths vomiting forth fire and fmohe and brimfione ; 
and thus, to ufe the words of the hiftorian.f " not only 
fubverted her empire, but trampled her religion in the 
' duft/' ^ 

It is to be remarked, that upon the accomplifhment of 
-this cataftrophe it is not faid, the fecond wo is pafl, as 
the fir ft was declared to be at the conclufion of the Sa- 
racen conquefts. The fubverfion of the Greek Church 
in this inflance was merely a little farther extenfion of 
that fame religion of Mahomed which had been already 
fo widely propagated by the Saracen Caliphs. The com- 
pletion therefore of the fecond wo is referved for a 
Ihock of another kind, which, as the eleventh chapter in- 
forms us, the apoflate Church in the weft is afTuredly 
deftined to receive previous to her final fall. In the 
twentieth verfe however it is prophetically obferved, 
that notwithftanding this difaftrous fubverfion of the re- 
ligion eftabliflied by Conftantine throughout the vaft 
regions of Afia, Africa and Greece, yet the profefFors of 
the fame religion in weftern Europe, who were not hurt 
by thefe ruinous calamities of the eaft, would not be 
convinced of the impiety of their religious tenets and 
mode of worfhip ; but would ftill continue to adore 
demons, that is, deceafed men and women, and to bow 
down before inanimate images ; neither would they be 
reclaimed from the murderous perfecution of their fel- 
low creatures, nor from the general grofs immorality of 

their 

t Gib. C. 68, P. 231, 



[ 70 ] 

tlieir lives. How faithfully this divine premonition has 
been verified by the events the hiftory of every country 
in Chriflendom within the precinds of the old weftern 
femi-empire too abundantly teftifies. 

It is now nearly three centuries and a half fince the total 
extin61ion of the Roman ernpire by the conqueft of the 
Turks predi6^ed in the vifion of the fixth trumpet. It 
is evident therefore, that, if this prophetic fcripture be 
really of divine authority, the meaning of the predic- 
tions of the remaining vifions of this book muft be of 
the greateft importance to us, becaufe they muft necef- 
farily relate either to circumftances of our own times, or 
to events that muft come- to pafs at no very diftant 
period. 

Preparatory to the founding of the feventh and laft 
fatal trumpet, the apoftle in chapter x. defcribes his 
vifion of a mighty angel defcending from heaven, envi- 
roned with fuch radiant fplendour as were fufHcient to 
illumine the whole extent of the Roman empire both 
in Europe and Afia, to denote which he is faid to Jiand 
upon the fea and upon the earth. On his crying aloud^ 
feven thunders are faid to have uttered their voices, 
which John was about to write fome explication of, but 
lie is forbidden, and ordered to leave the events to be 
produced by the feven thunders undefcribed. Thun^ 
ders, it has already been obferved, is a figurative expref- 
fton ufed to denote popular difcontents and infurre6lions. 
Of thefe we have juft feen feven^ the moft extraordinary 

and - 



c -1 1 



and remarkable that ever occurred together in the hif- 
tory of the worlds in Fla^nders, France^ Holland^ Lom- 
bardy^, SwifTerland, Rome and Naples ; the prefent efFe61s 
of which are obje6is of our own experience ; but whofe 
future confequences time alone can exhibit. This 
mighty angel of the vifion holding in his hand a little 
open book, who is evidently the Archangel alluded to 
by Paul in his fecond epiftle to the Theffalonians, pro- 
claims after thefe thunders^ that there would be no longer 
time or delay : but that, when the wars portended by the 
founding of the trumpet of the feventh vifionary angel 
jfhall take place, the important decrees of God announced 
in the myfterious language of prophecy will be fully ac- 
complifhed. After which the apoftle is ordered to take 
and eat up the little book, that is, to perufe and rumi- 
nate upon its contents ; and in doing fo naturally feels a 
fweet pleafure at firft from the increafe of knowledge he 
acquired by it. But when he had properly digefted it 
and well confidered its meaning prophetic of moll la- 
mentable calamities, it was the caufe of bitter grief to ; 
him. With this accumulated ftore of information the 
angel tells him, he muft again prophefy of things con- 
cerning many people, nations^ tongues and kings. 

In the mean time, the vifions of the two preceding 
trumpets having foretold the fubverfion of the Church 
of Conftantine, as well as of the civil power withiii the 
vaft extent of countries comprized in the limits of the 
three firft of thofe fucceffive empires of Daniel 
are peculiarly the fubjefte of thefe prophecies, I e zr-: h- 



[ " ] 



ange] proceeds to defcribe the ftate of religion in thofe 
kingdoms which arofe out of the ruins of the fourth em- 
pire in the weft, without fubverting that fame church as 
far as the hmits of the weftern femi-empire extended. 
For this purpofe a meafuring rod is given to the apoitle ; 
and the angel bids him meafure the temple of God 
and the altar and them that worlhip therein." Under 
the Chriftian covenant, we are repeatedly affured that, 
God dwelleth not in temples built with hands/' by any 
fuch particular manifefiation of his prefence as he dif- 
playedinthe Jewifh temple under the Mofaic covenant; 
neither is he worfhiped, as was then the cafe, with for-* 
mal facrifices and oblations the works of mens hands/' 
But the apoftle Paul tells the Corinthians, that every 
faithful member of the new^ covenant is in his own per- 
fon the temple of God/' And as the interior edifice 
of the temple at Jerufalam, called emphatically the tem-^ 
pie of God, contained only the holy of holies which was 
acceffible to none but the high priell, and the altar upon 
which the miniitering priefts made the oblations accord- 
ing to the ritual of the w^orfliip prefcribed by the law; 
whilft the outer court of the temple was acceffible to all 
the people who w^ere difpofed to affemble there to offer 
up their prayers to the Deity ; it is plain, from Paul's de- 
fcription of the chriftian temple of God, that the teinple 
and altar in the firft verfe of this eleventh chapter is a 
figurative expieffion denoting the internal, fincere reli- 
gion of the underflanding and heart of every true chrif- 
tian : and that the court which is without the temple in 
the fecond verfe denotes the mere external form and 

femblance 



C 73 3 



femblance of religious devotion, in which the imder- 
ftandingt or heart of the worfhipper hath no part. Of 
this external religion John is ordered to take no account 
in his meafurementj becaufe it is peculiarly the pro- 
perty of the nations" that compofe the feveral ftates 
which fucceeded the Roman empire in the weft, (for 
thofe alone are alluded to in this prophecy) who were 
deftined to tread the holy city under foot forty and 
two months/' 

It'has been already remarked, that as the ancient city 
of Jerufalem is ufed figuratively to fignify the religion 
or church of the Mofaic revelation, fo the phrafe new 
Jerufalem or the holy city is ufed both in this prophetic 
book and by the apoftle Paul to fignify the true religion 
or church of Chrift. It is here therefore exprefsly pre- 
dicled, that thofe nations will reject, defpife and fupprefs 
the pure religion of Chrift's Gofpel for the full term of 
1^260 years. We cannot wonder therefore that during 
that fatal period the apoftle's admeafurement fhould dif- - 
cover fo very fmall a number of rational, internal wor« 
fhippers of the Deity, according to the principles of ge- 
nuine Chriftianity, as to be accounted only two, that is, 
the fmalleft number of witnefTes required by the Mofaic 
law, and barely fufficient to give teftimony to the truth 

as 

t The grossest superstition and fanaticism may indeed excite sincere 
devotion and fervent zeal ; ]but in the rational religion of the Gospel 
covenant the understanding is equally concerned with the heart ; and 
every true Christian will say with the apostle, " I. will pray with the 
Spirit, but I will pray with the understanding aifo." 

K 



as it is in Jefus" from- time to time, againft the impious^ 
prevailing errors : nor that their publicly bearing that 
teftimony fhould be attended with fuch a ftate of perfe- 
cution, humiliation and affli61ion as is here meant by 
their being clothed in fackcloth/' Yet thefe, like 
Zerubbable and Jofhua in Zachariah's prophecy^ are de- 
nominated '^^ the olive trees and candlefiicks of God;" 
that is, by their means alone the flame of pure and ge- 
nuine Chriftianity has been and is preferved in the world 
alive and btight In the fifth verfe a fire is faid to pro- 
ceed out of the mouth of thefe witnefTes, to deflroy their 
perfecutoi-s and enemies, juft as when Jeremiah is com- 
manded to predial the deilru6i:ion of the Jews, God fays 
to him, I will make my words in thy mouth fire and this 
people w^ood, and if fhall devour them/' The obvious 
meaning is, that according to the predi6lions of that re- 
ligion to which they bear witnefs and which it is their 
province to explain, their enemies and opprelTors will 
be utterly deftroyed, as is figuratively defcribed in chap- 
ter xviii. particularly in the eighth and ninth verfes. 

In the figurative language of fcripture, w^hatever events 
the will of God hath decreed fhall take place in the time 
of any perfon, are faid to be accomplifhed by that per- 
fon ; fo that the literal fenfe of the fixth verfe is, that 
during the time of the opprefTion of thefe witnefTes the 
heaven-defcended, fruitful do6irines of theGofpel would 
be no w^here propagated fo as to flourifhf : and that thefe 

nations 

t That from heaven aiul fruitful fhowers are both a proper and 

ufual 



C ^5 ] 



nations of Europe would be frequently aflflifted with 
bloody wars and calamities of various kinds. The com- 
pletion of the firft part of this predi6lion we fee in the 
continued eftablilhment of the religion of the church of 
Conflantine in all thefe countries, and by its being taught 
in almoft every religious affembly, even of thofe who 
dilTent from the national church. And of the too exa6l 
accomplifhment of the latter^ the whole hiftory of Europe^ 
from the time of the foundation of the feveral Gothic 
kingdoms, that partitioned the weftern empire amongft 
them, to the prefent hour, affords indifputable evidence. 

As far as this verfe of the Apocalypfe, which brings us 
down to our own times and the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century^ we fee the early prediQions of this feries 
of prophetic vifions accurately accomplifhed in their or- 
der. A very fatisfa61ory pledge, that thofe which fol- 
low in the fame highly important book, will be likewife 
pun6lually fulfilled. And when we review the feveral 
events already noticed, from the firft wars of the Jews 
againft the Roman power to the total deftru6lion of that 
power, we find them all arifing fo naturally each from the 
preceding, that it is by no means wonderful that fuch 

caufes 

ufual figure of fpeech to denote the dodrinesof true religion, whofe end 
is to produce the fruits of moral righteoufnefs, may be feen from the 
words of Moses, Deut. xxxii. 2, " My dodlrine fliall drop as the rain; 
my fpeech fliall diftill as the dew as the fmali rain upon the tender 
herb, and as the fhowers upon the grafs, becaufe I will publifti the 
name of the Lord," &c. 

K 2 



C 7« ] 

Caufes fhouid have produced fuch effecis. But that con- 
catenation of caufes and effe61s^ to which all the changes 
and revolutions of human affairs are owing^ being a 
priori abfolutely impenetrable to the natural fagacity of 
man^ the previous circumftantial foreknowledge of them 
is poffible to that almighty being alone, who is the fole' 
author and diredor of fuch an intricate feries and com- 
bination of events. Its minute predi6lion therefore for 
fo many ages affords the mofl perfedly convincing proof 
of the conftant fuperintendance and interpofition of 
the divine providence in the concerns of men and of the 
truth of that revelation of his \^ill, which he has made to 
his human creatures at different periods both by Mofes 
and Jefus Chrift, 

The events predi6led in the fequel of this chapter 
are flill future. It is not in our powder therefore to in- 
terpret the precife mode of their accomphfliment in all 
its circumRances. iVnd to attempt to do fo were un- 
•warrantable prefumption. Yet after having duly weigh- 
ed and confidered the language of the foregoing pro- 
phecies, and compared it wath their completion, w^e can- 
not find it difficult to comprehend in a general fenfe the 
meaning of thofe that remain to be fulfilled. For when 
w^e are once acquainted w^ith its grammar, figurative lan- 
guage becomes as intelligible as literal. But, as Sir 
Ilaac Newton has well obferved, the intent of the Deity 
in thefe figurative predi61ions being not to make us pro- 
phets ; but by their fignal accomplifhment at the ftated 
period to imprefs upon the minds of men a jufi; fenfe of 

his 



C " ] 



his providence ; whenever we ftudy and interpret this 
prophetic fcripture^ we fhould be efpecially careful nei- 
ther to underftand any figurative expreffion in a literal 
fenfe ; nor to apply the general meaning of any fuch 
figure of fpeech to particular places -or circumftances, 
which are not clearly warranted by the terms in which the 
prophecy is expreffed ; for that were to fubftitute our 
own idle and perhaps groundlefs conje6lures in the place 
of the unerring, infallible word of God.f 

t The folly of not adhering clofely to the latter rule, the author has 
experienced in his own perfon. It is well known, that feveral of the 
clergy of our own country of different feds were fp ftruck with the 
abolition ef the Roman Catholic religion in France during the late ex- 
traordinary revolution, that they regarded it as the commencement of 
the predicted deftrudion of the apoftate church ; and publicly avowed 
their perfuafion that it would never be re-eftabliflied in that country. 
But the author, who for many years hath thought it hi* duty to pay 
particular attention to this only prophetic book of the new covenant, 
having obferved that the laft persecution of the few faithful difciples of 
Jefus predided in the next fucceeding verfes of this chapter, precedes 
the final fall of any part of that Church ; and knowing that no fuch 
perfecution with its confequent circumftances hath yet taken place any 
where, was fully convinced, that the fame religion would be a^ain efta- 
blifhed there. This he intimated in his reply to Mr. Simfon, publifhed 
as^ a poftscript to his Z^i^dr to Dr. Friefiky's Young Man, in 1794. 
But having no idea that fuch a re-establirtiment would ever be made in 
France under any form of a nominal republic, he erroneoufly concluded 
that the late disastrous war would have terminated in the restoration 
the ancient Monarchical form of government. Certainly however these 
prophecies no where refer to any particular species of civil power. A nd 
the event hath (hewn, that a first Consul is just as competent to the re- 
establifhment of the religion of the church of Rome as any other 
Monarch, 

From 



r ^8 ] 

From the book of Daniel it is certain, that in the lan- 
guage of prophecy a beaft is an emblem of the fupreme 
civil power. And as John by the perufal of the little 
open book was informed of the rife of that polarchical 
civil power, which was to combine in the fupport of the 
apoftate church within the limits of the weftern empire^ 
after the empire itfelf was deftroyed, and which is repre- 
fented in the fubfequent prophecy, ch. xiii. by the type 
of a beaft with feven heads and ten horns afcending out 
of the fea, the obvious fenfe of the feventh and fix fol- 
lowing verfes is, that when the termination of the l 260 
years fhall be nearly approaching, the above-mentioned 
fmall number of faithful chriftians, who teftify againft the 
corruptions and impiety of that church will be fome 
where feverely perfecuted by the civil power, and fuffer 
a political death. In which ftate of degradation and po- 
litical extin61ion they will continue for three years and a 
half in fome one of thofe fubdivifions of the weflern 
femi-empire where the apoftate church is eftabliflied. 
For the holy city and the Jiew Jerufalem denoting the 
true religion or church of Chrift, the great city or the 
city BahyIon^y'^\{\ch is contrafted with it, muft fignify the 
religion or church of the antichriftian apoftafy. And 
being defcribed as feated upon thofe ten kingdoms^ 
each of them, fo far as concerns its religious profeffion, 
is with perfe61 propriety denominated a Jireet of that 
city. The apoftate church is here emblematically called 
alfo Egypt and Sodom. The firft as being the opprelTor 
of the people of God and depriving confcientious chrif- 
tians of their natural religious liberty ; the latter becaufe 

the 



C 3 

the inftances of common idolatry amongft the Jews be- 
ing figuratively called fornication, the irrational, monf- 
troiis, imnatiiral idolatry of the apoftate church is more 
fitly expreffed by the unnatural pollution of that de- 
praved city. In that church too the chief obje61 of ido- 
latrous worfhip being the reprefentation of Jefus upon 
the crofs, he is faid, on account of the grief and painful 
affliction which fuch a blafphemous perverfion of the 
religion of the new covenant mult give him there to 
have been alfo crucified.* We are next taught, that the 
furrounding ftates of Europe will approve of and rejoice 
at the political death of thefe v/itnefTes ; whofe perfons 
inftead of being permitted to be removed out of fight as 
ufual in fuch cafes will be expofed to view in that legally 
extin6l ftate during three years and a half, at the expi- 
ration of which term their political life will be reftored 
to them ; they will be elevated with honour in the fight 
of their enemies ; and at the fame time fome great com- 
motion of the people will take place^ in which the 
church of that ftate forming one chief ilreet o^the city of 
Babylon, or one tenth part of the whole apoftate church 
will be abolifhed ; and feven thoufand diflinguifhed per- 
fons, probably in a figurative fenfe only like the wit- 
neffes, will perifli in the commotion^ ; and that the refl 

of 

* To take up the crofs and follow him" Jefus ufes (Lukeix. 23) 
to fignify fuffering alflidions and perfecution for his fake. And in the 
miraculous converfion of Paul, he calls the perfepution of his difciples 
persecuting himfelf ; fo that he is doubly, crucified in the apoftate 
church. 

X It h obfervable. that this predided comraotiou is not faid to affed 

the 



C 80 J 



of that nation, convinced of the truths will embrace the 
genuine religion of the Gofpel, 

Upon this dell;ru6lion of one tenth of the apoftatew 
church eftablifhed within the limits of the weftern Roman 
empire^ the prophet remarks that it is the completion of 
the fecond predi61ed wo ; and that the third, denoting 
the entire deftru61ion of that church, will foon affiiredly 
follow. Accordingly we are next told, that in confe- 
quence of the war, of which the founding of the feventh 
angel's trumpet is an emblem, all the nations who are the 
obje6ls of this prophecy, will be converted to the right 
faith in Chrift ; and that the pure religion of the new 
covenant will for ever prevail in them. 

In the beginning of thefe prophecies, the twenty-four 
eldei*s reprefenting the governors of the Jewilh nation 
are faid to fall down and worfhip the Deity, whenever 
the four beafts emblematic of the four divifions of the 
twelve tribes give glory and honour and tlimihs to the* 
only true God. The obvious meaning of verfes 16 and 
1 7, therefore feems to be that the Jews alfo wall then 
embrace the religion of the Gofpel with thankfulnefs, 
and acknowledge the only Meffiah. And in the terms 
pf their devout exultation thefe elders inform us, that at 

that 

the ftate, but the church alone. From whence it feems reafonable to 
conclude, that the death of thefe feven thoufand perfons may mean in 
their ecclefiaftical characters only. A circumftance which, if any con* 
. jed\ures were allowable, might perhaps fuggeH the partic\ilar country 
-^vhere that event is dellined to occur. 



C 81 ] 



-that important period^ which in all the fcriptures of the 
new covenant is called the coming of the Chrift or Mef- 
fiah, the nations which oppofe his authority will feel the 
infli61ions of his vengeance ; the refurreQion alluded to 
by Daniel and Paul will take place to reward confpicu- 
oufly the faithful fervants of the true God ; and an end 
will be put to the devaftation and calamities which wars 
and wickednefs at prefent oceafion in the world. 

-=»lll!lllllOIIllllJ!iC=== 

When the archangel in the vifion of the tenth chapter 
forbade ^he apoftle to defcribe particularly the events 
produced by the feven thunders, he at the fame time 
communicated to him the further prophetic knowledge 
contained in the little open book ; and told him he muft 
prophefy again to the whole world. This fecond pro- 
phecy commences at the nineteenth verfe of this chap- 
ter. And the firft fcene of the vifion reprefents that 
part of the temple which contained the ark of the cove- 
nantj becaufe it relates chiefly to the ftate of religioa 
in the Roman empire after profelfed chriftians had apof- 
tatized from the new covenant;, as the Jews in the wilder^ 
nefs did from the old. Whilll the lightnings, voices, 
thunders, earthquake and hail-Jlorm indicate the various 
wars, commotions, popular infurre6^ions and revolutions 
which the hiftory of Chrillendom alfures us have fre- 
quently occurred during that period, than which nothing 
can be more contrary to the ftate of the world under the 
influence of the religion of the chriftian covenant fo 

beautifully 



[ 8^ ] 

beautifully defcribed by Ifaiah f in the ufual figurative- 
language of the prophets. 

In the vifion of the twelfth chapter a prophetic view 
is given of the general ftate of the chriftian church both 
before and after her apoftafy from the religion of the new 
covenant promulgated by Jefus and his apoftles. For 
as the Jewifh church under the old covenant is frequently 
reprefented by their prophets under the type of a wo- 
man, the Jign, as it fhould have been tranflated, or em- 
blematic appearance of the woman there defcribed re- 
prefents the jflate of the church as firft inftituted by the 
apoftles, inverted with the fplendor of that heavenly 
light which is ordained to illuminate the underllanding 
of all mankind ; and which forms a mod flrikino^ con- 
traft with the darknefs of that unintelligible myftery 
with which fhe is defcribed as branded in the forehead 
in her apoftate HateJ. She wears upon her head a 
crow^n of twelve ftars, typifying the do61rine of the 
twelve apoftles of Jefus ; and tramples the inferior 
light of the old partial covenant under her feet, to 
denote her reje61ion of all carnal ceremonies and the ri- 
tual obfervances of times and feafons of the mofaic law. 
In this ftate, though pained and afflicled with the gra- 
dual perverfion and corruption of the genuine doc- 
trines of the Gofpel by that myjlery of iniquity, which 
began to w ork even in the days of the apoftles themfelves, 
fhe continually endeavoured to produce converts to the 
chriftian faith. For that is the meaning of her travelling 
in births as appears from Paul's ufe of the fame figure 

of 

t C. ii. 4. and xi. ^—9. % Ch. xvii, 5. 



r 83 ] 



offpeech*. AnoXhev Jignal, emblematic appearance in 
the vifion was a great red dragon, with feven heads and 
ten horns and feven croims upon his heads. From the 
explanation given by the angel in Daniel's vifions, and 
in that of the feventeenth chapter of this book of the 
beaft with feven heads and ten horns it is certain, that 
it is intend, to typify the civil power of the Roman em- 
pire. And its appearance here under the form of a 
dragon or ferpent, the conftant figurative expreffion 
iifed to denote the groveling, infmuating, fedu6live 
fpirit of idolatrous fuperilition, that grand Satan or 
adverfaryof all rational, true religion, the depraver of 
moral virtue and foe to human happinefs, fhews plainly 
that in this place it typifies the civil power of the Ro 
man empire in its original ftate of pagan idolatry. By 
its armies it had overthrown all [the principalities of 
the Macedonian empire, the iecond of the geographical 
triple divifion of thofe regions which are exclufively 
the fubje6l of thefe prophecies, as that had fupplanted 
the firfl third, or the empire of wellern Afia. In the 
reign of Trajan and fome fubfequent emperors, but ef- 
pecially Diocletian and his colleague, the moil rigid 
feverity of the civil power was exerted to prevent the 
propagation of chriftianity, and by the terrors of perfecu- 
tion to reabforb into the vortex of idolatry thofe who 
were converted, which is here emblematically denomi- 
nated being prepared to devour the woman's child as 
foon as it was born. Thus circumftanced the church 

continued 

Gal. iv 19. and 1 and 2 Tim. 1,3, 
• L 5? 



[ ] 



continued till fhe produced a convert from paganifm in 
the peribn of Conftantine^ who by the divine providence 
was elevated to the imperial throne and ordained to 
govern with defpotic power all the nations comprized 
within the limits of the Roman empire. 

Immediately after this important events the church is 1 
reprefented as haflening to that unfruitful flate of im- 
morality typified by her place in the barren wildernefs, 
defcribed in chapter xvii. in which according to the pre- 
didion of the apoftle Paul^ being no longer let or im- 
pededj but fupported and maintained by the civil power 
ihe apoflatized from the genuine religion of the new 
covenant to an intolerant^ myflerious^ blafphemous^ 
idolatrous fuperftition, eftablifhed by that power, in 
which ftate fhe was to be upheld not only by the go- 
vernors of the Roman empire, but even for i2G0 years 
afteu the extinction of that empire in the wefl. 

Upon this adoption and avov/ed protection of the re- 
ligion of the nominally chriflian church by the emperor 
Conftantine, it was to be expected that the majority of 
the fubje6ts of the empire, who were habituated to the 
polytheifm and idolatrous ceremonies of their ancef- 
tors, would contend in oppofition to the counfels of di- 
vine providence which had ordained the approaching 
abolition of the old pagan idolatry throughout the Roman 
empire. Such a conteil was actually maintained in the 
reign of Conftantine & his fuccefTors, particularly under 
the emperor Julian. And though the religion of the newly 

eftabiifhed | 



C ] 



eftablifhed church was profeffed and patronized by all 
of them except Julian^ yetftill they found it necelTary or 
at leafl prudent to tolerate, in a very liberal manner^ 
the worfliip of Jupiter and the other Gods of their an- 
cient mythology ; and even perfon^lly to ^cept the 
office of Pontifex maximus of the old religion. This 
conteil is typified in this vifion by the war between 
Michael and his angels and the dragon or ferpent, that 
is, the fpirit of pagan idolatry and its zealous advocates. 
And it continued to the reign of Gratian who firil re- 
fufed the cuftomary dignity of Pontifex maximus ; pro- 
hibited the facrifices, and deprived the heathen priefls 
of their falaries and authority. Theodofius the great 
followed his example. And that idolatrous fyftem of 
polytheifm, which for fo many centuries had been the 
religion of Rome and of all the nations that compofed 
her extenfive empire, could never afterwards re- 
cover itfelf. 

Thus was heathenifm or pagan idolatry, which had fo 
long deceived and depraved all thefe nations, eje6led 
from that elevated ftation which it had till then preferved 
amongll; the rulers and higher orders of the flate, and re- 
duced to a precarious, fhort-lived exigence amongft the 
inferior orders only. At the vifionary completion of 
this important event the apofile heard a loud voice pro- 
claiming, that by this victory over pagan impiety, which 
had fo long rendered mankind culpable before God^ 
now at length effe6led in confequence of the difinterefted 
teftimony to the truth of the Gofpel revelation born by 

the 



C 86 J 



the fiifferings of Jefus himfelf upon the crofs and the 
fubfequent deaths of many of his faithful difciples^ a 
confiderable progrefs was made tov/ards that faving health 
and flrength of mind, which will be univerfally attained 
when the predi6led kingdom of God and the power and 
influence of his anointed, fhall be fully accomplifhed. 
The higher ranks of people in the empire are bid to re- 
joice that they were now emancipated from the degrad- 
ing fervitude of falfe Gods ; but the inferior orders of 
men both in the eaflern and weftern parts of the empire, 
(which appears to be the meaning of the inJmhiters of 
the earth and of the fea,) it is intimated, would ftill ex- 
perience the baneful influence of that idolatry during 
the fliort time it would be permitted to exift. When the 
zealous advocates of paganifm faw their fall and degra- 
dation, they naturally exerted their utmofi: eflbrts to 
overthrow that church which had produced the con- 
verfion of the emperors. But, by the final divifion of 
the empire between 'the fons of Theodofius, two wings of 
the great Roman eagle were given to the newly efl:a- 
bliflied church to bear her to her defl;ined flation in the 
barren wildernefs, defcribed chapter xvii, where fhe is to 
be fecurely fupported and maintained by the civil power, 
which was to fucceed to that of the weftern femi-empire, 
for the fpace of 1260 years. And that period is here 
exprefled in the very words of Daniel, a time, times and , 
half a time, to fliew that it refers to the fame event pre- 
difted alfo by that prophet. 



That 



That the patronage of the fupreme civil power would 
prote61 the church from the feeble attacks of the Sophifts 
and Platonifts of the latter fchool amongft the continu- 
ally decreafing numbers of the adherents to paganifm 
within the empire, feems fo obvious and unimportant as 
fcarcely to deferve particular remark. The prote6^ion 
of the church therefore in her new fituation from the face 
of the ferpent, that is, from the hoftile alTaults of the pa^ 
gan idolaters, muft refer to fomething much more ex- 
traordinary. Accordingly in the two next verfes is 
typified that inundation of the Roman empire by the 
barbarous pagan nations, which from the death of Theo- 
dofius to the overthrow of the weftern empire threatened 
utter deftru^ion to both church and flate, which a6lually 
depopulated great part of Italy the peculiar feat of the 
church, and ended in the entire fubverfion of the civil 
power ; yet the church herfelf remained fecure, as here 
pi;edi61ed ; the pagan invaders fettling themfelves in the 
conq^iered provinces gradually coalefced with the re- 
maining inhabitants of the empire, by their converfion 
from paganifm, inllead of fiibverting the church, as the 
Mahomedans did afterwards in the eail, they were ab- 
forbed into the number of her difciples, as the earth im- 
bibes the waters poured upon it, and became, inftead of 
enemies, her zealous fupporters. Thus the fpirit of 
idolatrous fuperftition, however irritated it had been 
againft her, ceafed from all a61s of hoftility to the church 
herfelf, but began, after a new manner, under the name of 
Zeal for the chriftian faith, to perfecute that fmall rem- 
nant of her fons, who adhered to the commandments of 

God 



C s« 3 

God alone^ and were the faithful witneffes of Jefus 
Chrili. 

The general converfion of the barbarous nations that 
invaded and fubverted the weftern empire, to the fame 
religion of the church of Conftantine produced a kind 
of union in the various kingdoms that were formed by 
thofe nations within the limits of the extin6l empire. 
And in the beginning of^ or at leaft early in the feventh 
century they had all combined together in the fupport of 
that church which the imperial authority had eftablifhed 
both in the eafi and weft. 

This great change in the nature and circumflances of 
the civil power in the weft of Europe, which was to^ 
fulfil the chief predi61ion of thefe prohecies refpe6ling 
the m.aintenance of the apollate Church for the period 
of 1 260 years, is particularly defcribed in the iifual em- 
blematic language of the prophets in chapter xiii. 

The whole of the Roman empire in its fulled extent 
having been before typified in the preceding chapter 
under the emblem of a great Dragon having feven 
heads, from which proceeded ten horns, but having its 
crowns or emblems of civil pov;er only upon its feven 
heads, becaufethe kingdoms typified by the ten horns 
wxTe not then formed into diftind fovereignties ; the 
peculiar ftate of the civil power in the weft, after Theo- 
dofius had divided the Roman empire into tvv^o feparate, 
independent dominions or femi-empires, is here repre- 
fented under the figure of a beaftarifing out the fea^ 

that 



[ S9 J 



that is out of Europe.f with the fame feven heads pecu-" 
liarly denoting the civil power of the feven-hilled city 
of Rome and the feven different forms of government 
under which it was at different times adminiftered; and 
having now crowns upon the ten horns that arofe out of 
his feventh head^ defignating thea61;ual formation of that 
polarchy v/hich was to fucceed the feventh head or femi- 
imperial form of government; and to be the fiipporter 
of the apoftate church in the weft during fo long a 
period. By the defcription given of this beaft, as having 
fome properties of each of Daniel's three firft beafts^ yet 
very different from them all^ it appears plainly to be 
that prophet's fourth beaft,* which had alfo ten horns ; 
and which was a type of the civil power of Rome^ the 
deftroyer and fucceffor of the three former empires con- 
folidated in the Grecian^ with particular reference to the 
fame circumftances and period of time which are here 
more fully predi61ed in the vifions of John. 

Of this civil government of the Roman empire the 
apoftle remarks^, that the name of blafphemy was brand- 
ed upon all its feven heads, that is, upon every form 
under which it had been and fhould be adminiftered 
both before and after the age of Conftantine. Why the 
charge of blafphemy fliouldbe alleged againft it during 
the times of its polytheifm and pagan idolatory is fuf- 

fi ci en tly 

t By the Earth the Jewifh writers always meant Alia with Africa, 
and by the ijles of the fea or of the Gentiles^ &c. Europe, See Gen, x. 
5. If, xxiv. 15, jxvi. 19; &c. &c. * Dan, vii, 

M X 



C 90 j 

licientlj obvious to every body. And in the fequel we 
will ijiquire wherein the blafphemy confifts of which if 
is accufed even after the eftablifhment of the church by 
Conftantine ; and more efpecially after the ere6lion of 
the Gothic kingdoms that fucceeded thefeventh or femi- 
imperial form of Government. For this feventh head, 
according to the exprefs words of this predi61:ion, in a 
very fhort time after it had received its power and feat 
and great authority from Theodofius^ who then alone ad- 
miniftered the government of the old, entire Roman em- 
pire, was really wounded to death by the utter extinc- 
tion of that divided empire in the weft ; but by the 
combination of all thofe European kingdoms, that arofe 
from out of its ruins, to fupport the fame religious 
fyftem and ecclefiaftical polity, as far as concerns the 
affairs of the apoftate church, which is the main obje61 
of this fecond prophecy, that fatal wound was healed; 
the ten crown-bc?aring horns rofe up in its place to the 
admiration of the world; and all the barbarians within 
the limits of the weftern empire by the irrefiftible force 
of the civil power were compelled to embrace the fame 
mode of religious worfliip which had been ordained by 
the authority of all the Roman Emperors from the fourth 
century. Yet in ordaining the tenets of this religion^ 
the apoftle tells us^ the civil governments of Europe 
would continue to utter blafphemy againft God and the 
powers of heaven for forty-two months, that is 1^260 
years : during which long period they would perfecute 
and opprefs the fairits or faithful witiielTes of Jefus Chrift 
throughout all the aforefaid nations ; in confequence of 

which 



C 91 J 

which feverity all the other inhabitants of thofe king- 
doms by obfequioufly adopting the legal religion of the 
ftate would pay that reverence to the civil magiftrate, 
which in matters of confcience, is due to almighty God 
alone. To encourage however the patience and fidelity 
of that fmall number of true and fincere chriflians, the 
prophet calls upon the whole world to hear^ that the 
Deity will at length infli6l fignal vengeance upon their 
perfecutors ; and that all who opprefs and deflroy them^, 
will alTuredly be oppreffed and dellroyed themfelves. 

Befides the before-mentioned beaft^ the emblem of 
the fupreme civil power of the European polarchy, 
another beaft is reprefented in this vifion having fome 
external marks of a lamb, or of Chillianity^ but fpeaking 
in the arrogant over-bearing tone of idolatrous, impe- 
rial authority. In chapter xix, 20, this fame emblematic 
perfonage is called a falfe prophet^ and both there and 
here is faid to have deceived and impoled upon man- 
kind by falfe, pretended miracles. It typifies therefore 
mofi: undoubtedly that body of falfe teachers and deceit- 
ful miracle-mongers the Clergy of the apoftate Church, 
as forming a facred clafs diftinguifhed from the Laity or 
people in general. This arrogant diftin6tion was firfl 
made in the churches of Afia and Africa. And therefore 
the origin of this fecond beaft is properly affigned to the 
earth or great Continent. With what truth it is here 
predicted that this earth born clerical corps would make 
life of the power of the ftate to caufe the inhabitants of 

all 

Ms 



C 9^ 3 

all thefe nations to pay implicit deference in all religious 
matters to the decrees of their temporal rulers; and that 
they would artfully induce every nation to eftablifh a 
Hierarchy from amongft their clafs^ for the regulation 
and government of all concerns which they thought fit 
to pronounce ecclefiaftical and fpiritual, fo exa6lly re- 
fembling the form of the civil government, as to 
juflly denominated its image, is well known to all who 
are acquainted with the hiftory of the church during 
thelaft 1200 years : asalfo how truly the hierarchy of 
Rome is faid to have caufed all, who reje61:ed the re- 
ligion of the ilate, to be put to death, and fixed upon 
people of all ranks a diftinguifhing mark of their ortho- 
doxy ; and by excommunication to have deprived of 
the benefits of the common intercourfe of life all who 
were not diftinguifhed by that mark, or who did not, 
like the flaves of old who bore the numerals of their 
mafter's name branded in their foreheads, difplay 
publicly their religious fervitude to the civil magiftrate^ 
whofe proper name as having fucceeded to the govern- 
ment of the weftern or Latin empire in the language of 
the Apocaiypfe is Lateinos, the greek numerals of which 
amount exaclly to 666. 

!n contraft with thofe branded flaves to the civil ma- 
giftrates in matters concerning God alone, the fourteenth 
chapter prefents to us a vifion of the great multitude 
of thofe martyrs enumerated in chapter vii. who were 
marked in their foreheads as faithful fervants of God ; 
who were not polluted by idolatry and falfe religion, but 

in 



in pure fincerity of heart had been followei's of Jefus 
both in life and death. Thefe^ now that the coiirfe of 
the prophecy leads us to a near view of the termination 
of the ij260 years^ when their perfecutor the apoftate 
church no longer fupported by the civil power is to be 
utterly defiroyed^ are reprefented as uttering loud 
triumphal exultations and fongs of joy^ denoting that 
the time of their recompenfe approaches. Accordingly 
the vifion of the fixth and feventh verfes teaches us, 
that then the true religion of the Gofpel would be 
preached to all the nations^ loudly admonifhing them 
to fear and give glory to God, and to worfhip the great 
creator of the univerfe alone, becaufe the time of his 
judgment approaches, when the extenfively powerful 
apoflate church, which has fo long made all the nations 
of Europe partake of her idolatry, muft fall and fall 
for ever, 

In the five next verfes, to induce men ftill the more 
to reje61: the eftablilhed fuperftition, which is to perifh 
fo fpeedily, and to obey with fincerity the everlafting 
Gofpel of Chrift, certain and eternal defi:ru6lion is de- 
nounced againfi: all thofe who ftill continue with fervile 
zeal criminally to adhere to the devoted falfe religion 
of the civil magiftrate and the hierarchy; at the fame 
time that, to encourage the patience and perfeverance of 
the faithful difciples of Jefus Chrift in their confli61 with 
the fupporters of the antichriftian church, that muft 
precede its fall, a voice from heaven proclaims them 
happy who are perfeputed even to death for the fake 

of 



C 9* ] 

of Jefus ; for that they are thereby relieved from all 
further fufFerings^ and will fpeedily receive the rewards 
due to their virtuous condu61:. 

For the accomplifhment of thefe denunciations and 
proclamations of the celeftial vifion, in the feven laft 
verfes of this chapter Jefus is reprefented as feated upon 
R white cloud, wearing a golden crown as the Chrift, 
JSleffiah or anointed king of the w^hole earthy holding a 
fharp fickle in his hand^ with which by the command of 
God he cuts down the immoral fruits of the feed fown 
by the doctrines of the apoftate churchy, the time of 
whofe harveji is fully come ; and is followed by an 
angel having a fimilar inflrument wherewith he is ordered 
to gather the -vintage of the earthy which is caji into the 
great wine prefs of the wrath of God, expreffions which^ 
if we confult Joel iii^ 1 3, \s e fhall find to be prophetic 
figures offpeech ufed to denote the great feverity of 
God's judgments upon thofe who opprefs his people. 
But it is obfervable^ that the fcene of that vafl flaughter 
and effufion of blood here predidedis exprefsly faid to 
be without the city, that is beyond the limits of the 
apoitate churchy perhaps amongft the Mahomedans in 
European or Afiatic Turkey. 

The firfi: verfe of chapter xv^ is fo entirely uncon- 
ne8:ed in its contents and meaning with thofe pafTages 
of this revelation ^vhich immediately precede and follow 
it, that it feems highly probable, that through the negli- 
gence of fome copyift it has been tranfpofed out of its 

original 



r 9s ] 



original order, which the fenfe appears to require lliould 
be between the fifth and fixth verfes ; and that the fe- 
cond verfe fliould have immediately followed the twen- 
tieth of the preceding chapter : and in the divifion of 
this book into chapters, ch. xv, fhoiild have commenced 
at the fifth verfe. For the fake of perfpicuity therefore 
we will confider it in that order*. 

In the beginning of our invefligation of the meaning 
of this prophetic hiftory it was obferved, that the fcenery 
of thefe vifions correfponded to the fcenery of the Jewifh 
temple, particularly at the feaft of tabernacles which fol- 
lowed the ingathering of the harveft and vintage. The 
fea of glafs therefore before the throne of God, corref- 
ponds to the brazen fea within the temple ; and upon 
the preceding general view of the deftrudion of the ene • 
mies of the faithful fervants of the only true God and his 
Chrift, in what is called figuratively the harvefl and vint- 
age of the earth or Koman empire under its laft form^ 
thofe virtuous martyrs both Jews and Chriftians are here 
reprefented flanding upon this fea of glafs to indicate 
their unfuUied footfleps or purity of condu61, but the 
cryftal apparently mixed with fire, to denote the fiery 
trial of the perfecutions they have undergone, cele- 
brating the vi61:ory, thus at length gained for them by 
the providence of the almighty, in fongs of praife 

adapted 

* Should any reader be of a contrary opinion refpeding this verfe, 
the only difference will be, that in that cafe the Epinicion which follows 
it, mull be underflood to have been fung by way of prophetic antici- 
pation of the vidory which was to follow the fevea plagues or inflidioiis 
jf>f divine vengeance. 



[ 96 2 

adapted to the members both of the Mofaic and Chriftian 
covenant to that one eternal Deity whofe ways and 
works are indeed wonderful, but always juft and true ; 
and declaring that the effe6l of the manifeftation of his 
over-ruling providence, in the fevere judgments prefi- 
gured in thefe virions, will be to reclaim all thefe nations 
to the only rational worfhip of God, the fincere pra6^ical 
performance of the obligations of the religion of the 
new covenant of the GofpeL 

After the above general, prophetic portrait of the 
rife, duration and fall of the antichriftian powers which 
prevent the reception of the religion of the new cove- 
nant in the world. The apoftle is favoured with another 
vifion informing him of the feven and only feven in- 
termediate ftrokes or inflictions of divine punifhment 
upon the apoflate church, which would occur previous 
to her entire defi:ru6tion. As the firft of this feries of 
avenging infli6lions took place almofl immediately upon 
the final divifion of the Roman empire by Theodofius, 
that is, at the very commencement of thefe vifions of 
the fecond prophecy of John, he recurs accordingly to 
the famefcene of the opening that part of the temple 
which contained the tabernacle of the teftimony and ark 
of the covenant mentioned Chapter xi, 19. Andthere^ 
beiides the other fignal appearances already related in the 
three preceding chapters, he faw another extraordinary 
emblematic vifion of feven angels holding the feven 
fignal infiances of punifhment, which the providence 
'of God had deftined fliould be inflided particularly 
xipon the apoftate church of thew eftern empire. 

Thefe 



r 9' J 



Thefe feven angels the apoftle faw come out of the 
temple, in order to execute the commiffions allotted to 
them, habited, though more fplendidly, after the man- 
ner of the officiating priefts of the temple. A nd he ob- 
ferves, that it was one of the four beafts reprefentative of 
the jQwifh nation that gave them the vials of divine in- 
dignatibfli' ' A circumftance which feems obvioufly to 
imply, that the inhuman cruelty of the members of that 
church to that unhappy exiled people was one great 
caufe of thefe fevere tokens of Gq^'s difapprobation of 
their condu6l; and in the eighth verfe we are emblema- 
tically informed, that during the time of this difplay of 
the avenging power and glory of Cod the true religion of 
the Gofpel would remain obfcured, and nobody be per- 
mitted to worfhip according to its precepts till after the 
infli6lion of thefe feven plagues. The laft of them, as 
we fhall foon fee, was what Proteftants call the Refor- 
mation, before which no degree of religious liberty was 
tolerated in any part of Europe. 

Chapter xvi, begins with a loud command given to 
thefe avenging angels to pour out their vials of divine 
indignation. The firft is poured out upon the land or 
chief feat of the weftern femi-empire and of the apof tate 
church, that is, upon Italy ; and produced a bad and 
painful wound or ulcer that affli61ed the profelTors of 
the religion eftablifhed by the civil power and its hierar- 
chical image. Such a griveous fore did Attila the Hun 
prove to the people of Italy, which he invaded in the 

" - ■ ~ year ■ 

N 



C 9s J 



year 4i^2.f Gibbon tells us that after he had utterly de- 
ftroyed the rich and populous city of Aquileia^ as he 
purfued his march^ the cities of Altinum^ Concordia and 
Padua were reduced into heaps of flones and aflies. The 
inland towns of Vicenza^ Verona, and Bergamo were 
expofed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns ; Milan 
and Pavia fubmitted without refiftance to thedofs of 
their wealth, and applauded the unulual clemency which 
prefer^'ed from the flames the public as well as private 
buildings, and fpared the lives of the captive multi- 
tude/' &c. Again he tells us,* " that many families of 
Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, who fled from 
the Huns, found a fafe though obfcure refuge in the 
neighbouring iflands/' A circumfl;ance which became 
the origin of the Venetian Republic. And again,J that 
the emperor Valentinian efcaped from the found 
of war by his hafty retreat from Ravenna to Rome,'^ 
where^ with the Senate and people, he embraced the 
falutary refolution of deprecating, by a folemn and fup-^ 
pliant embafly, the wrath of Attilla/' 

The fecond angel poured out his vial upon the fes^ 
which became bloody, and great numbers of the fea- 
faring and maritime people of Italy were deflroyed ; 
predi6ling the deftru61ive efleds of the maritime war of 
Genferic, who, as the fame hifl:orian relates, § aflli6led 

the kingdom of Italy, a name to which the weftern em- 
pire was gradually reduced, by a naval war of the Van- 
dals, from A. D. 46i, to 46 7; in the courfe of which they 

repeatedly 

t Vol. 6, P, 124, 8vo^ ^ P, 126, I P. 130. § P. 18^. 



C 99 3 



repeatedly vifited the coafls of Spain, Liguria, -Tufcany^ 
Campania, Lucania, Bruttium, Apulia, Calabria, Venetia, 
and Sicily, and fubdued the ifland of Sardinia/* 

The third angel's vial is poured out upon the rivers 
and fountains of waters, which (as before obferved in 
the cafe of the founding the third of the feven trumpets 
of the former prophecy, to which thefe feven vials clofely 
correfpond, ) denotes the inhabitants of the diftant pro- 
vinces of the Italian empire. And the great bloodlhed 
here figuratively typified, was fully accomplifhed in the 
final contefl between the Franks under Clovis, and the 
Almanni of Alface in the year 496, and throughout the 
whole reign of that king of the Franks. Gibbon's words 
are,f " the event of that bloody day decided for ever 
the alternative of empire or fervitude. The laft king of 
the Almanni was flain in the field, and his people were 
flaughtered and purfued, till they threw down their 
arms and yielded to the mercy of the conqueror. 

*His (Clovis's) ambitious reign was a perpetual viola- 
tion of moral and chriflian duties. His hands were ftained 
with blood in peace as well as in war," &c. And he tells 
us, J Gregory of Tours has indicated the cruel, though 
indefinite flaughter of Clovis's battle with Aleric, A. D. 
507, by the vague expreflion of a mountain of the flain." 
And § that " the army of the Franks and their Burgun- 
dian allies was compelled to raife the fiege of Aries with 
the lofs, as it is faid, of thirty thoufand men," the lofs 
of one fide only. It is well worthy of obfervation, that 

the 

t Vol. 6, P. 31^, *P. 320, JP. 335. § P, SSr. 



[ ] 



the wars, which produced all this fanguinary devaftation 
of the provinces, were in pretence at leafl a kind of re- 
ligious wars between the two long contending parties of 
the apollate church, the Arians and Trinitarians, who 
had each in their turns, when fupported by the ruling 
powers, been cruel and intolerant perfecutors of all who 
differed from them ; and that the ignorant, half-con verted 
barbarian Clovis was in all his campaigns the avowed 
champion, and under the infjuence and encouragement 
of the orthodox trinitarian church of Rome. With great 
reafon therefore might this third angel ackno^vledge the 
righteoufnefs of the Deity in the infli61ion of this judg- 
ment. ''For, fays he, they have fhed the blood of faints 
and prophets, and thou haft given tJiejji blood to drink ; 
for they are worthy." V/hich is confirmed by another 
angel about the altar exclaiming, even fo^ Lord God 
almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments/' 

The period of time comprized in the accomplifhment 
of the predi6Lions typified by thefe three vials is nearly 
fynchronal to that of the three firft trumpets in the for- 
mer feries of apocalyptic vifions, and contains two cen- 
turies, viz. from the end of the fourth to the beo-inninof 
of the feventh century; of which Robertfon juitly re- 
marksf that, if a man were called upon to fix upon the 
period in the hiftory of the world, during which the con- 
dition of the hum^an race was molt calamitous and afflict- 
ed^ he would, without hefitation, name that which elapf- 
ed from tlie death of Theodofius the Great, to the efta- 

blifhment 
t Introd, to Kift of Charles V, P. 11; Svo. ed. 



[ 101 ] 

blifbment of the Lombards in Italy/' That is^, from the 
clofe of the fourth to the latter end of the jfixth century, 

Africa is not only dire6tly fouth of the weftern Euro- 
pean empire, but lies peculiarly under the whole torrid 
zone, or apparent courfe of the Sun ; whofe influence 
upon the inhabitants and all the natural produ6lions of 
the earth is greater there than in any other part of the 
globe. It appears obvioufly therefore^ and with great 
propriety, to be typified in the eighth verfe by the em- 
blem of the fun. And it mufi: be obferved, that though 
the efFufion of the three former vials indicated calami- 
ties, that were to befall the apoflate chriflians in thofe 
parts of the empire upon which they were poured out, 
yet this fourth vial is faid to be poured out upon that 
region of the fun not to inflict any evils at that time upon 
Africa itfelf ; but to empower it to carry the flames of 
war into Europe, and thereby affli6l the Pfeudo-chriflians 
of thofe kingdoms into which the weflern empire was 
then divided. This predi6lion was fully accomplifhed^ 
when in the beginning of the eighth century the Maho^ 
niedan Saracens in cpnjun6lion with their new fubje61s 
and converts the Moors, invaded, conquered and fettled 
themfelves in Spain ; from whence and from Africa, in 
the courfe of that and the fucceeding century, they 
harraffed the whole maritime coafl of Italy ; and took Si- 
cily and other iflands of the Mediterranean. Yet flill the 
people of thofe countries, by adhering to the fuperftition 
of the apoflate church, continued to blafpheme that 
Godj who alone had power to rellrain or infli6l thefe 

great 



C 3 



great evils, and were not led to repent of their impiety 
and glorify him by adopting the pure and rational re- 
ligion of the Gofpel of Jefus Chrift. 

The fifth angel poured out his vial upon the feat of the 
BeaJI, that is, upon all thofe ftates and kingdoms within 
the limits of the old weftern femi-empire from the Adri- 
atic to the Atlantic ocean weft of the ifland of Great 
Britain. And, although literature and the fciences were 
ftil] preferved in the eaftern femi-empire, and flouriflied 
even within the dominions of the Saracen Caliphs, the 
whole of that part of Europe was fo overfpread with the 
groffeft obfcurity of mental darknefs, that they barbar- 
oufly tortured even their own native languages. To ufe 
the words of the hiftorian,f " the Barbarians in Europe 
were immerfed in ignorance, and their vulgar tongues 
icere Jiiarked icith the rudenefs and poverty of their mau' 
ners." Perfons of the higheft ranks/' fays Robert- 
fon,* and in the moft eminent ftations, could not read 
or write. Many of the clergy did not underftand the 
breviaiy which they were obliged daily to recite ; fome 
of them could fcarcely read it.'' And in his note upon 
this circumftance he observes, that Alfred the Great 
complained, that from the Humber to the Thames there 
was not a prieft who underftood the liturgy inh is mother- 
tongue, or who could tranflate the eafieft piece of Latin ; 
and that from the Thames to the fea, the ecclefiafticks 
were ftili more ignorant.'' The profoundeft obfcurity. 
of this m.ental darknefs prevailed during the ninth, tenth 
^d eleventh centuries. The 
t Gibbon; vol. 12, P. ]38. * Introd. to Charles V. Seel. 1. 



[ 103 ] ' 

The fixth vial is fynchronal to the fixth trumpet of the 
firft feries of thefe prophetic vifions, and refers to the 
Very fame event, the tranfmlgration of the Turks into the 
countries wefl of the Euphrates. It is poured out there- 
fore upon that river, to prepare the way of thofe Sultans 
from the eaft, who in the latter half of the eleventh cen- 
tury eftablifhed themfelves in Syria and Afia minor ; & 
by their cruel opprelTion of thofe mentally blinded Eu- 
ropeans, whofe fuperftitious zeal for the fabulous reli 
gion of the apoftate church induced them to undertake 
pilgrimages of devotion to Jerufalem, and what thej 
called the holy land, gave rife to the memorable crufades 
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, A circumftance 
that clearly explains to us why this vial, though prophe- 
tic of a fevere infli6lion upon the members of the apo- 
ftate church in the weft of Europe, isdefcribed as poured 
out upon the river Euphrates. In the language of this 
prophecy waters are exprefsly declared to denote peo- 
ple in general. And as Monafteries are detached col- 
le^lions of people of a particular kind, they may with 
great propriety, in conformity to this figure of fpeech^, 
be denominated pools of Jlagnant waters. But the am- 
phibious inhabitants of natural pools of water are frogs. 
Frogs therefore become a proper emblem of monks or 
friars, thofe amphibious animals who, renouncing the na- 
tural conne6lions of human fociety and feparating them- 
felves from mankind, live chiefly within the precin61s of 
their convents according to the rules of their feverai or-, 
ders ; yet, as frogs often leave the pools for dry land^ 
frequently come out into the world, appear in cities, 

and. 



[ 104 3 

and, like the frogs in the plagues of Egypt, infeft the 
habitations of men and enter even into the chambei*s of 
kinofs. That monks were the firfi: and chief inftio^ators of 
the crufades is well known/and they arereprelented here 
as proceeding out of the mouth of the beaft and falfe 
prophet,f becaufe they were encouraged and authorifed 
by the civil power and the clergy to preach up and levy 
recruits for thofe holy wars. To effe6l their purpofe 
they deceived the people with accounts of miracles 
wrought by their demons, the reli61s of deceafed men 
and women, whom they called faints and adored ; and 
pervading all the nations of Europe prevailed upon kings 
and all orders of men to affemble themfelves for thofe 
fatal battles with the Turks, every one of which might 
be juftly Ccilled the great day of defl:ru(^ion ordained by 
the over-ruling providence of God. And, fays the pro- 
phet, " they gathered them together to a place called in 
the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." The very naming 
the place of rendezvous in Hebrew indicates plainly that 
the object of the crufades was to recover from the Turks 
fome place in Paleltine,. the ancient country of the He- 
brews, That place was particularly Jerufalem and Mount 
Sion, which is here denominated Armageddon or the 
mountain of deftruftion. How truly let Gibbon teftify, 
whofe words are,* amidfl the defarts of Anatolia and 
the rocks of Paleftine, the millions of the crufades had 

buried 

t We take no notice of the words three and the, Dragouy becaufe they 
are omitted in fome copies, and for obvious reafons ought to have been 
omitted in all. 

* Vol. 12, 



C 10^^ ] 



buried themfelves in a voluntary and inevitable grave/'* 

After thefe extraordinary inftances of the degree of 
infatuation to which ignorance accompanied with fuper- 
liitious bigotry is able to debafe the human raind^ in the 
courfe of the two following centuries many circum- 
fiances concurred, which are w^ell known to all who are 
acquainted with the hiftory of thofe times, gradually to 
difpel that mental obfcurity and denfe cloud of igno- 
rance, which had fo long overwhelmed thefe weftern 
nations of Europe. And by the invention of the art of 
printing in the fifteenth century the expanfion of mental 
light and knowledge was rapidly augmented and dif- 
perfed over the whole atmofphere of that part of the 
world, which for the four preceding centuries had been 
benighted in worfe than Egyptian darknefs. 

This memorable era of the revival of literature in the 
weft is defignated in thefe prophetic viiions as the feventh 
and laft fignal infii6lion deftined by divine providence 
to befall the apoftate church previous to her utter de- 

ftru6lion, 

* We have paiTed over verfe 15, alfo unnoticed from a con- 
vidion that it could not have originally occupied this place, be- 
caufe it is incompatible with the obvious meaning of the patTage. 
Bifhop Newton obferves with reafon, that its infertion hath difturbed 
the fenfe and broken the connedion. And Beza's opinion was that it 
was transferred hither from Ch. iii. It rather appears to have been 
at firft a mere marginal note by fome copvift, who underftood the great 
day oj God Almighty to fignify the fame as the coming of J{fus Uirijl 
mentioned in Ch,, iii. 3, 4, and J8, where every idea is found that en- 
ters into the compofition of this extraordinary verfe, 

o 



C 106 3 

flruflion ; and is typified by the feventh angel's pouring 
out his vial upon the air^ whofe conta6l and influence 
affe^l not particular regions alone, but extend to and 
even beyond the utmofl limits of the old femi-empire. 
Upon the emblematic completion of this great event, 
whofe beneficial effe61s upon mankind ftill work and 
will for ever continue to operate, a voice from the throne 
of heaven proclaims aloud it is done." The end of 
all thefe deftined infli6lions is now accompliflied. It im- 
mediately opened the eyes of numbers in every country 
to perceive the many fcandalous abufes, which during 
the late ages of ignorant fuperftition had been introduced 
by the hierarchy into the religion of the eftablifhed 
church. Loud exclamations and proteftations againfi: 
them and againft the arrogated power and authority of 
the fovereign pontiflf were every where heard ; which 
were followed by popular infurre6lions and even the 
flames of religious wars, and fo great, general, violent 
and long a commotion took place in thefe European na- 
tions as cannot be parellelled in the whole hiftory of the 
world. The confequence was, that after many fevere 
confli61s in different parts, that great city the apofiate 
church was fplit into three divifions, the Roman Catholic, 
the Lutheran and Galvinift ; fo that the Catholic 
churches in many countries were entirely fubver ted by 
thofe of Proteftant denomination. By this predi6led 
triple divifion of the apoftate church divine providence 
has infli6led a fatal wound upon her, which can never be 
healed. Many ijlands, or diftindl difiri61:s entirely de- 
ferted and feparated from Rome ; and her accuftomed 

ecclefiaftical 



r J 



€cclefiaftical dignities in them difappeaved. But as the 
civil power of the weftern femi-empire is confidered as 
ftill the fame body, for all the purpofes of this prophecy 
under its ten divifions or polarchical ftate, as when under 
one emperor, fo the church or effabliflied religion of all 
thefe countries is ftill confidered in the fequel of this 
prophecy as the fame apollate church, notwithftanding 
its divifion into three difiin6l hierarchies. In truth the 
fundamental and efTential articles of their religion are 
all alike. And though in the operation of fpliting the 
one main trunk of the apoftate church into three chief 
parts many different fmall fplinters have been detached, 
which in countries where they are tolerated conftitute 
feparate religious focieties ; yet they are all portions of 
the very fame timber ; have a fimilar favour ; and in all 
the material, original principles of their religious tenets 
are the very fame. 

So fituated the apoftate church, ever fince fhe drank 
fo deeply of ''the cup of the wine of the fiercenefs of the 
wrath of God" in the fixteenth century, has been a houfe 
divided againfi itfelf which, if the argument ufed by 
Jefus have any force, muft necelfarily fall Accordingly 
her power and authority have ever fince been every 
where declining ; preparatory without doubt to her ap- 
proaching utter deftru6i:ion predi6led in this book, whe^ 
her myfterious, impious, unfruitful fuperftition will be 
fuperfeded by the rational, moral, healing efficacious re 
ligion of the new covenant of the gofpel of Jefus Chrifl. 

Moft 

O ^ 



C ] 



Moft commentators feem to have milapprehended this 
obvious explanation of the feventh vial, in confequence 
of their fuppofmg that what is called the laflfignal in- 
fli6^ion of divine vengeance upon the apoftate church 
muftbe fynchronal with her predifted fall, and therefore 
flill to come ; not confidering that, whenever her fall 
takes place, this prophetic book affures us, the king- 
doms of the weRern empire will become, truly chriftian 
in piety and religious worfhip ; whereas after this tri- 
partite divifion of the apoftate church, thefe nations of 
Europe are faid in verfe ^1, to continue to blafpheme 
God/ 

By the ufe of fire-arms and artillery which commenced 
at the fame period with what is called the era of the Re- 
formation, there have fallen upon the people^ in their 
wars, haii-ilorms of bullets, canon balls, and bombs of an 
enormous weight. And whether from the defirudlive 
power of thefe new engines of war and till then unufual 
Ihowers of this flrange and figurative fpecies of hail they 
were defeated or vi6lorious, they have ftill perfifted in 
blafphem.ing the God they pretended to adore in the 
Litanies of their Fails, and the Te Deums of their thankf- 
givings. 

Another reafon for the niifapprehenflon of the true 
meaning of the typical predi6lion of this vial may alfo 
be, that almoii all the moil refpe^lable interpreters of 
this emblematic book have been ecclellailics of the difTe- 
rent proteiiant churches, Vvho pre fuming, but not upon 
fulBcient grounds, that the churchy, vfhich was the objeft 

of 



[ 109 ] 

of this prophetic hiflory, was exclufively the local church, 
of the city of Rome ; and being naturally difinclined to 
condemn thofe churches whofe do6lrines they themfelves 
had adopted, fondly perfuaded themfelves that all they 
who were emancipated from the fupremacy of the Pope 
were perfectly exempt from thofe marks of religious 
apoftafy^ with which they laboured to prove that the 
church of Rome was ftigmatized. But they Ihould have 
ccnfidered^ that it is repeatedly declared^ that the apof- 
tate church would be fupported and maintained by the 
civil power of the feveral ftates that arofe from the ir- 
ruptions of the barbarous nations^ within the limits of 
this weftern empire^ for the long period of 1 260 years; 
that from the ecclefiaftical hiftory of our own country it 
is demonftrable, that the eftablifhment of the religion of 
the church of Rome was not univerfally completed in 
thofe ftates before the former part of the feventh cen- 
tury^ that is, barely 1 200 years ago, if fo much ; and that 
the change, which was made by fome of thofe flates in 
their religious eftablilhment^ at the time of the reforma- 
tion, took place when little more than 900 of thofe years 
had elapfed. So that unlefs all the proteftant churches 
alfo;, which have been eftablifhed in Europe by the civil 
power> are confidered in this book as being ftill parts of 
the fame apoflate churchy this prophecy can never be 
fulfilled. 

Why they are fo confidered will perhaps more clearly 
appear^ when we examine, with the attention they de- 
ferve^ the particular charaCterifiic marks with which the 

apofi:ate 



C no J 



apoftate church is defcribed in the following chapter as 
branded in her very forehead, that is, moft confpicu- 
oufly. For the conftitution of hierarchies may vary, as 
the forms of civil government of which they are the 
image differ in different nations. And whether the 
Deity be addreffed according to a printed form of prayer 
hy the whole congregation, or for them in the precon- 
ceived or extemporary effufion of the minifler alone ; 
whether that minfter officiate in his ordinary drefs or in 
a white or black robe ; whether baptifm, if it is neceflary 
to be adminiflered at all, be performed by pouring or 
fprinkling water or by immerfion ; or whether upon 
infants or upon adults only ; are matters of not the 
fmallefl real moment in themfelves. And whatever dif- 
ferences fuch as thefe may exift between them, if the 
fundamental principles, upon which their modeof wor- 
Ihip and their effential religious do6lrines are built, cor- 
refpond to thofe of the church of Rome, they are all 
only different portions of the fame antichriflian church, 
whofe ruin, if this book of the Apocalypfe be of divine 
authority, now fail approaches. 

Thus far then the world has feen the prediaions of 
this fecond feries of prophetic vifions a6lually accom- 
pliflied. A matter of faa which affords us the ftrongefl 
affurance that all thofe that follow will in their due time 
be alfo faithfully fulfilled. 

Refpeaing the former of thefe two feriefes of pro- 
phecies, we have above obferved, that if we attentively 
confider the whole chain of thofe prediaed events, which 

hiflory 



hiftory informs us have really produced all the great re- 
volutions in the civil power of the nations within the 
utmoft limits of the Roman empire, from the rebellion of 
the Jews in Nero's reign to the eftablifhment of the fe- 
veral Gothic kingdoms in the fouth-weft parts of Europe 
and of the empire of the Turks in the eaft, it is eafy to 
perceive how intimately they are all conne6led ; and 
how neceffarily each preceding event conduced to thofe 
that followed. 

In the fame manner^ in this latter feries of prophetic 
vifions prefiguring more efpecially the fate of the apof- 
tate churchy if we pay due attention to the conne61ion 
between the feveral events alluded to^ we fhall find, that 
nothing could be more natural than that the rude and 
barbarous nations who invaded and fubverted the wef- 
tern femi-empire, when confidently affured by the clergy 
of the church of Rome of the divine favour here and the 
enjoyment of eternal happinefs in a future life, upon 
their merely fubmitting to the ceremony of baptifm and 
profefTmg to be chriflians, without the leaft alteration 
in their moral condu6^ and habitual courfe of life^ 
fliould readily exchange their old idolatrous worfhip, 
which gave them no fuch promifes, for the new one of 
their vanquifhed fubje6ls. And when the devaflating 
ware of thofe northern nations againfc the empire and 
againfl each other had deflroyed or driven away all its 
wealth and learning ; and weilern Europe, depopulated 
of its former inhabitants, was lefiy p^ -xc 
ignorant, uncivilized barbarians under the influence of 

religious 



religious infl:ru6lors^ who prohibited the reading of the 
fcriptures by the Laity^ and not only difcoiiraged^ but re- 
prefented as impious^ the ufe of their rational faculties 
upon fubje6ls of the greateft importance^ we cannot 
wonder that the kingdoms formed by them within its 
limits Ihould have been overwhelmed with that extraor- 
dinary mental darknefs, in which^ for want of any fli- 
mulus to prompt them to exert the natural energy of 
their minds upon obje61s worthy of human knowledge^ 
they continued immerfed for above four centuries. We 
fee too how, by the deftru6live violence of the invaders 
of Italy, a foundation was laid of the maritime republic 
of Venice, whofe extenfive commerce in after times with 
Egypt and Afia greatly facilitated the fuperftitious pil- 
grimages of devout bigots to Jerufalem, which at length 
led to the mad and ruinous enterprizes of the Crufades. 
We perceive alfo how the knowledge and information 
gleaned by the Crufaders in their intercourfe with Greece 
and Alia, together with the fubfequent conquefts of 
Greece by the Turks, which compelled the learned of the 
eaft to leek a refuge in the weft of Europe, gradually 
difpelled that thick cloud of ignorance ; and how na- 
turally the revival of learning and the liberal exercife of 
men's reafon brought on the feventh memorable event, 
predicted in the chapter we have juft perufed, the triple 
difunion of the apollate church, or, as the Proteftants 
call it, the Reformation. But if any man can really be- 
lieve that a writer in the reign of Claudius or of Nero, 
by mere human agacity^ alone without the extraordinary 
communication of that almighty Being, who is the fole 
' author 



[ 113 ] 

' author ^of nature, and therefore is alone capable of trac- 
ing perfpicuoufly through the moft diflant ages this in-* 
tricate, yet regular concatenation of caufes and effe61s, 
could have thus circumftantially preadmonifhed mankind 
of fo many principal links of this complicated chain of 
events, which underltanding the terms they are expreiTed 
in according to the received ufe of fuch figurative lan- 
guage in theJewifh fcriptures and other writings of the 
eaft, hiftory and our own experience affure us have ac- 
tually come to pafs and exa61:ly in the prefcribed order, 
his credulity muft furely be of the fame kind with that 
of the zealous champion of the faith of the apoftate 
church, who declared, that he implicitly believed the 
moft inexplicable article of her myfterious creed^ becaufe 
it was impoffible. 

Having brought us to the laft calamity of the anti- 
chriftian church previous to her total deftru6lion, to ena- 
ble us the better to afcertain the particular obje6l of 
thefe prophecies, and to avail ourfelves accordingly of 
the important intelligence, the apoftle in the feventeenth 
chapter informs us, that one of the angels, who had pour- 
ed out the feven vials, entered into converfation with 
him, and invited him to come and view the condemna- ~ 
tion of that extenfive church which was eltablifhed in 
many nations ( for that the vifionary myftagogue him- 
felf in the fifteenth verfe explains to be the meaning of 
the emblematic term waters ) who has feduced their ru. 
lers to adopt her idolatrous mode of worfliip and com- 
pelled all the inhabitants of Europe to drink deep of the 

P infatuating 



t 114 ] 



infatuating cup of her impious fuperftition. According^- 
ly, in the operation of his mind^ John feemed to be tranf- 
ported into a barren^ unfruitful wildernefs, and there to 
behold a woman^ theufual type of a church or religious 
fociety, as we have before obferved^ fupported by the 
very fame feeafi:, which he faw arife^ in the vifion of the 
thirteenth chapter, the type of the civil power of the wef- 
tern after its final feparation from the eaflern femi-em^ 
pire. This emblem of the apoftate church was alfo 
fplendidly and fumptuoufly appareled and adorned with 
riches and the mofl valuable poffeflionsj holding a gold- 
en cup, the type of her religious tenets^ replete with 
abominable, unnatural idolatry, and mofl: confpicuoufly 
branded in her front with the chara61eri{lic names of 
J\/lyJlery, Babylon the great, the Mother of Harlots and 
abominations of the ^arth. 

Fi'om her fituation in the wildernefs, that is, in a ftate 
of barren unfruitfulnefs, and her being fupported there 
by the civil power, it is evident that this vifionary woman 
reprefents the very fame church that was before typified 
in chapter xii, where her flight into the wildernefs is em- 
blematic of her apoflafy from the genuine religion of the 
new covenant ; in which ftate her diftinguifhing charac- 
ters are dire6lly oppofite to thofe of the true church of 
Chrift, with which fhe was adorned before her apoftafy 
as defcribed in the firft verfe of that chapter. 

In her origin fhe is faid to have been wholly invefted 
with the univerfally illuminating perfpicuous fplendour 

of 



of that fun of righteoufnefs ; and to have had her head 
crowned with the bright and radiant do6lrine of his 
twelve apoftles^ trampling under her feet the moon^ the 
emblem of the night and of periodical rites and ceremo- 
nies thofe ftrong holds of ignorant, irrational fuperflition. 
Had circumftances permitted her in that ftate to have 
expanded her influence widely over mankind, and to 
have pre ferved her exiftence in the world, flie would 
have been from the firft that^^ fp^^f^ Jefus Chrifl, 
that religious fociety or church defcribed in chapters 
xix. and xxi. by the name of the Lamb's wife and o^the 
holy city, JVew Jemfakm, which the fequel of this Re- 
velation afTures us, will at length by the providence of 
the Almighty be permanently eftablifhed amongft men, 
though not till after the utter deftru6lion and annihila- 
tion of the apoftate church. On the contrary, in her 
apoilate ftate fhe is reprefented as gaudily drefled in 
robes of human manufa6lure, and adorned with worldly 
wealth. Inflead of brilliant, illuminating light, her firlt 
and moft eflential do61rines are avowedly inexplicable 
jnyfleries; inflead of being named the holy city, new 
Jerufalem, fhe is denominated the great city Babylon^ 
the opprefTor and enflaver of the people of God, the 
fource of all the fabulous, falfe religions and idolatrous 
fuperftitions of Europe. Her ineflicacy in producing the 
works of moral righteoufnefs is reprefented by her fitua- 
tion in the barren, unfruitful wildernefs, and inflead of 
pra6lifing the peculiar virtues of true chriflianity, uni- 
verfal benevolence and philanthrophy, the apoftle was 
aflonifhed to fee her intoxicated with her fuecefs in 

P 2 flaughtering 



C 116 ] 



llaughtering confcientious chriftians^ and the faithful 
witnefles of Jefus. 

So accurate is the information of this prophetic book, 
that it notices not only the fa61 of the church's apoftafy 
from the religion of Jefus to an impious and abominable 
fuperftition, but alfo the very circumftances that occa- 
fioned it, viz. the obftacles thrown in the way of con- 
verfion to true chriftianity, and the cruel perfecution of 
^its profeffors by the fpirit of pagan idolatry invefled 
with the power of the Roman empire. And the apoftle 
Paul, in his predidions of the fame fatal, deplorable 
apoftafy, intimates the fame thing, when he tells us, that 
the myftery of iniquity, or that fecret, difguifed difpo- 
fition to depart from the plain fimple, rational elements 
of the Gofpel, began to operate even in his time, when 
the perfecutions excited againfi; them by the Jews in- 
duced many to fuperadd the obfervances and rites of 
Judaifm to the pure and fpiritual religion of the new 
covenant, with a view in fome degree to reconcile them- 
felves to the Jews, and abate their odium and hoftilitv. In 
the fame manner, when after the deftru6lion of Jerufa- 
lem and the fubfequent rebellions of the Jews both Jews 
and Chridians became equally obnoxious to the idola- 
trous pagans, the converts from heathenifm to chrilii- 
anity detaching themf elves as much as they could from 
the Jews and Jewifh converts, in order to efcape the con- 
tempt and enmity of their pagan countrymen, and thofe 
fevere perfecutions to which the laws continually fub- 
je6led them, were led to adopt tenets refpeCling the au- 
thor 



C 3 



thor of their faith correfponding to the fabulous mytho- 
logy of pagan fuperfhition. They caught at the empha- 
tical title Son of God by which the Chrift or Meffiah is 
figuratively denominated ia many parts of fcripture, and 
reprefented him as literally the fon of the fupreme Deity 
in fome fuch fenfe as they had been accuftomed to 
call Mercury, Bacchus and Hercules, Ions of Jupiter. 
And to account for the ignominious death of fuch a ce- 
leftial perfonage on the crofs, upon a mere, obvioufly 
dida6lic allegory, introduced into the Jewifli fcriptures, 
according to the cuftomary way of giving inftru61:ion 
amongft all the eaftern writers, they founded a fyftem of 
do61:nnes replete with blafphemy and impiety againft the 
one only true God, the creator of the univerfe. That they 
might allure the pagans the more readily to admit their 
new idolatrous fuperftition, they gradually adopted every 
fellival obferved by the heathen and even the proctffions 
ufed previous to their facrifices ; converted the plain 
commemorative rite of the Lord's fupper into a refem^ 
blance of the Eleufinian myfteries, and fubllituted the 
fuperftitious adoration of the crofs, the Virgm Mary, the 
Apoftles and Martyrs, for that of the pagan Gods and 
<}oddefres and their idols. 

In this manner, as Paul foretold, tJie myjlery of iniquity 
continued to worh, till the religion of the apoltate church 
was completely formed and in the reign of Conftantine 
legally eftablifhed, and foon after exclufively fo, as the 
religion of the Roman empire. When the over-grown 
bulk of that vaft imperial edifice of human ambition be- 
gan 



C H8 3 

gan to totter and decay, its power in the eafl was infuf- 
ficient to preferve the predominance of that church in 
Afia^ Africa, and at length in ancient Greece, extenfive 
regions throughout which for many ages fhe can fcarcely, 
be faid to have exifted. But in the weft, according to 
the exprefs predi61ions of thefe prophecies, the feveral 
potentates, who have fucceeded the imperial power of 
Rome, have continued to fupport the exclufive efta- 
blifhment of the fame church. And the memorable 
cruelty of her repeated fanguinary perfecutions, toge- 
ther with the terror of difqualifying and penal law^s 
ordained again ft all thofe who renounce her communion, 
have hitherto had the fame prevailing influence upon the 
great majority of their fubje6ls to adhere to her religion 
at leaft externally, as fimilar caufes had upon the frailty 
of the profefted chriftians of the fecond and third cen- 
turies to induce them gradually to adopt the original 
do6b-ines of herapoftafy. 

For this reafon the charge, of whatever there is of 
blafphemy in the eftabliftied religion, is in this prophetic 
vifion fixed upon the emblem of the civil power, be- 
caufe nothing lefs than the remunerating and avenging 
arm of that power a61ing upon the paftions of their fub- 
je6is could have induced them to abandon the ufe of 
their own reafon fo far as to avow their approbation of 
do61rines and a mode of w^orftiip, which a6lually blaf- 
phemethe awful majefty of the Almighty. A circum- 
fiance that well deferves the ferious confideration of 
every government in Europe. 

The 



C 3 



The church herfelf indeed, in conformity to the lead-^ 
ing chara61er with which fhe is here ftigmatized, at- 
tempts to prechide all inquiry into the truth and ten» 
dency of her rehgious tenets under the plea of incom- 
prehenfible, and impenetrable myftery: But if a man 
attends to the information given us in this prophetic re- 
velation, that very plea will lead him to fufpeft, that thofe 
fundamental do6lrines of her religion, which fhe would 
thus fcreen from the prying eye of real on, muft be pe* 
culiarly the impious do6lrines of the predided apoftatCj 
antichriftian church. For the gofpel of Jefus Chrift is 
a revelation of the will of God ; but myjlery and revela^ 
tion are as oppofite and incompatible in their very na- 
ture, as darknefs is to light. 

The firft of thofe do6lrines, upon which the entire fyf« 
tem of her religious worihip is founded, is explicitly fet 
forth in the creed drawn up in her firft council held un- 
der the prote6lion of the civil power at Nice in Bithynia, 
and is to this hour profeffed to be the belief of all who 
are deemed orthodox members of every eftablifheid church 
in Europe. 

In that Trinity of diftin61 agents into which the Unity 
of the Deity is there not only irrationally but prefumptu- 
ouily and impioufly divided, agreeably to that difpofition 
already noticed to make the popular tenets of the pro- 
feffed chriftians of that age appear conformable to thofe 
of the pagans, we can fcarcely fail to obferve a very 
itriking refemblance to the theological Triade of Plato 

and 



C 1^^^ ] 



and of the idolatrous nations of the eaft. And the ap- 
proach which the exhibition of three diflin6^ obje61s of 
invocation and adoration, though in words declared to 
be but one and the fame Deity^ made to the heathen po- 
lytheifm, no lefs attracts our notice. Without animad- 
verting however upon the grofs abfurdity and irrecon- 
cileable contradi6lions of that creed, let us only attend 
to the abfolute blafphemy of its di6tates. 

By his prophets of old^ as well as by the voice of reafon^, 
God hath repeatedly afferted his abfolute immut ability , 
incorporeity and omniprejence. To teach therefore, that 
fuch a Being at a late period of the exiftence of our 
earth changed the mode in which he had exifted from all 
eternity, and became incarnate in an human body like 
our own, and was born, lived and died as one of the in- 
habitants of this globular particle of the univerfe, is 
doubly blafphemous ; firft as making God a liar, by af- 
firming his mutability in the a6lual change of his mode of 
exiftence ; and fecondly by degrading him to a level with 
his own creatures. Yet thus is the one almighty crea* 
tor and ruler of the univerfe blafphemed daily in the re- 
ligious worfhip of the apoftate church. 

The blafphemous impiety of this do6lrine was fo ob- 
vious at its early origin, that the minds of many revolted 
at it; who therefore reje6led it, and fubftituted a doc- 
trine in its place, which taught that it w^as not the Deity 
himielf that underwent this mutable degradation ; but 
that the firll and moil excellent of all fpiritual, celeftial, 

created 



[ 3 



created beings was delegated to become a man like oiu- 
felves in the perfon of Jefus of Nazareth, and to be the 
mediator of the new covenant of the Gofpel, 

This latter hypothefis ferved the very, fame purpofe 
that was intended by the former, that of affimilating the 
doctrines of the church to the heathen mythology, in 
which fuch inftances of transformation were common. 
And as they allowed of adoration though of a fubordi- 
nate kind to this archangel incarnate, they thereby re- 
tained a refemblance to the different degrees of religi- 
ous honour paid to the fuperior and inferior deities of 
that fyftem of pagan idolatry, to which not only the fur- 
rounding nations but almoft all the Fathers of the church 
of Conftantine had been from their infancy habituated. 
But, though not quite fo offenfive by its bJafphemy, it 
was equally irrational, equally repugnant to the exprefs 
do6lrines of revelation. For both reafon and the apoftle 
Paul affure us, that there is no incorporeal being except 
the one omnifcient, omniprefent creator of all things ; 
that all other intelligent beings whether we call them 
fpiritual, celeflial or terreftrial, are incorporated in bodies 
peculiarly adapted to their prefent mode of exiftence^ 
without which they could not exift in that ftate in which 
they are placed. An archangel therefore, whilft he con- 
tinued fuch, could no more exift in a terreftrial, human 
body as an inhabitant of earth, than men can live under 
water amongft the inhabitants of the great deep. To' 
enable us to exift in that fpiritual ftate of exaltation^ 
which is promifed ns upon our fulfilling the conditions 

Q of 



C ] 



of the new covenant^ we are told, that we muft previoufly 
be entirely changed, and be no longer men. For the 
fame reafon, were the Deity to inform us, which he hath 
never done, that it had been his will to degrade a celef- 
tial being to the humble rank of fuch a creature as man, 
that being muft neceffarily have undergone an equiva- 
lent counter-change to fit him for his ftate of human 
exiftence ; muft have been deprived of his angelic fa- 
culties; made fubje6lto human appetites and paffions; 
and become a mere man. Whatever commiffion fuch a 
perfonage could execute might be equally w^ell executed 
by any other mere man whom God ftiould ordain for that. 
purpofe ; fo that this imaginary mythological metamor- 
phofis could anfwer no worthy end. If fuch a fable hath 
any fenfe at all, it muft fuppofe that even in his degraded 
ftate this quondam archangel retained the fame confcious 
fentiments that he enjoyed in his ftate of fpiritual ex- 
iftence. But, in fuch a cafe, how dreadful muft have 
been the mental fufteringsof fuch a being from his con- 
dition of an embryo in the w^omb and of a puling infant 
to the moment of his expiration upon the crofs ! Were 
this ajuft reprefentation of the mediator of the new co- 
venant, inftead of having any merit in being obedient unto 
deaths his crucifixion muft have been an event the moft 
earneftly defired by fuch a being. iVnd how injurioufly 
blafphemous is it againft the goodnefs and even juftice 
of the almighty to attribute to him the barbarous^ wan- 
ton cruelty of unnecelfarily infli6ling upon fuch an ex- 
alted, innocent perfon, fuch difgufting, ftiocking torture 
for above thirty years together ! ! ! 

Yet 



C 1^25 ] 



Yet as this fanciful hypothefis feems rather lefs offen- 
five than that which impioufly degrades the eternal 
Deity himfeif to a flate and mode of exiftence which 
our fober reafon will not fuffer us to fuppofe even the 
lowefl of his fuperior creatures to have been reduced to^ 
it found numerous partizans ; was patronized by many 
of the emperors ; and prevailed long in Africa and the 
eaft. But the former having been adopted by the Pope 
and other Bifhops of the weft has been deemed the only 
orthodox tenet refpe6ling the obje6ls of the religious 
worfhip of every Church eftablifhed within the limits of 
the weftern femi-empire^ to which alone thefe prophe- 
cies relate. Since the reformation indeed^ feveral indi- 
viduals amongft the clergy even in the weft have adopted 
the Arian inftead of the Trinitarian mythology. But if 
the liberal exercife of their rational faculties led them 
toreje<51 the latter^ it is difficult to conceive how their 
reafon could reft fatisfied with the former attempt of the 
Fathers of the church to reconcile Chriftianity with 
Paganifm. 

Befides this monftrous^ unnatural tenet by which the 
apoftate church pretends to juftify her idolatrous wor- 
fhip of a mortal man^ in order to affign fome kind of 
" reafon for fuch a blafphemous transformation^ the Fa- 
thers of that church invented another of her eftential^ 
fundamental do61rines ftamped alio with the myfterious 
character prefigured in this prophetic book^ the Myjiery 
of man's redemption from endlefs torments denounced 

againft him in a future life in confequence of what is 

Q 2 ' called 



[ 124 ] 



called the fall of Adam; the guilt ofwhofe tranfgreffion 
is faid to have been neceffarily transfufed into all his de- 
fcendants ; and fo to have depraved his nature and that 
of all mankind from the flate in which he was originally 
created;, and rendered them fo prone to evil^ that no- 
thing lefs than the infinite merit of the death of the in- 
carnate Deity upon the ignominious crofs could make 
a fufficient atonement to himfelf for their fins^ fo as to 
preferve only fome of them from the impending fate of 
that dreadful punifhment^ to which he himfelf had 
doomed them, and fit them to inherit a happy immor- 
tality in a future fiate of exiftence, to which he had alfa 
defiined thofe fortunate chofen few. 

This impious^ antichriftian do61rine fo highly inju- 
rious to the m oft glorious of the divine attributes/bound- 
lefs wifdom, mercy and goodnefs^ and abfolutely irre- 
concileable to the moft obvious dilates of that reafon 
which God himfelf hath given us, is the very head flone 
of the corner of the foundation of the whole religious 
edifice of the apoftate church. We call it antichriftian, 
becaufe it flatly contradi61s the plaineft do61rines of the 
Gofpel of Chrift ; and from the age of Conftantine to 
thejprefent century has contimially countera61ed that 
moral influence upon the paffions and lives of men, 
which the new covenant promulged by him is intended 
to produce. 

This dQ61:rine alfo like th^ former had its origin in pa- 
gan fuperftition, which fuppofes their avenging Gods, 
whom ignorant idolaters always inveft with paffions re- 

fembling 



fembling their own^ to be propitiated only by the death 
of the offender^ or by the facrifice of foiiie other perfon 
or thing of value offered in his ftead. And its great 
obje6l feems to have been to reconcile the heathen con- 
verts to the difufe of thofe a6lual facrifioes to which they 
had been accuftomed, by reprefenting the crucifixion of 
JefuS;, (though it has no one feature of a religious cere- 
mony attending it ; but like the deaths of feveral of his 
followers and many thoufands of other innocent deferr- 
ing perfons^ was an a61: of flagrant violence and in- 
juftice produced by a tumult of the blind and deaf paf- 
fions of ignorant and interelled men ; ) as an atonement 
for every kind and degree of crime fufficiently effica- 
cious to fuperfede the neceffity of every other facrifice 
provided they took care to apply it to the cafe of their 
particular offences by a participation of the ceremonious 
commemoration of it in the facrament of the Mafs or the 
Lovd's fupper, and by a faith and confidence in its in- 
finite efficacy. Accordingly it is afferted even in their 
mofl folemn addreffes to the Deity himfelf to be a full, 
perfeEl and fufflcient facrifice, oblation and fatisfaSlion for 
the fins of the whole world. 

If we examine , the only grounds alleged for this 
bold prefumptuous do61rine, whereby men have pro- 
fanely fuperfeded the Deity in his office of Judge of all 
the earth, and previoufly arrogated to themfelves the 
judgment of the lall day, we fhall be convinced of the 
truth of Paul's predi6lion, that the members of the 
apoftate church would incur fo flrong a delufion as 

['to 



[ 126 ] 

to helieDefalfehood and that they would turn away 
their ears from the truth and he turned unto fables". For 
the plain^ fimple truth of the Gofpel of Chrill is glad 
tidings of a new covenant propofed by the gracious 
mercy of almighty God to all mankind ; a motive of 
fuch infinite importance that, wherever it is known and 
received as of divine authority, it cannot fail having a 
moft powerful influence on the minds and actions of men 
in all flations, and equally in their private and public 
condu6l. The terms of this gracious covenant on the 
part of men are, to imitate the boundlefs goodnefs and 
mercy of their common creating Father, doing their 
utmofi: by the conftant exercife of afFe6lionate bene- 
volence and univerfal philanthropy, to contribute to the 
comfortable well-being of all with whom they are in any 
wife conne61:ed ; and as far as their influence extends, 
to promote the happinefs of the whole human family ; 
to reflrain their own natural appetites and paflQons within 
the bounds of temperance and rational moderation, and 
by foregoing thefelfifh enjoyment of mere fenfual gra- 
tifications, whenever they would be ineonfiflent with 
prudence, innocence, or the welfare of any of their fel- 
low creatures, to live foherly, righteoujly and godly. To 
thofe who confcientioufly do their befl to perform thefe 
conditions, and to none other God has engaged, on his' 
part, to grant the fpecial prote6lion and blefTuig of his 
providence in this world, and after death to raife them 
from the grave to the inheritance of a more exalted 
life of happinefs and immortality, of which he has given 
us a fpecim'en and pledge in the refurrefiion of the man 

Jefus 



[ 127 ] 

Jefiis the mediator of this covenant. And as the old 
covenant made with the nation of the Jews by the me* 
diation of Mofes^ while it promifed temporal profperity 
of every kind to their obedience, denounced dreadful 
calamities in confequence of their difobediehce to the 
terms of that covenant, fo in this univerfal covenant of 
the Gofpel another powerful motive is added to in- 
fluence our condu6l on fo important an occafion ; and 
we are repeatedly alTured, that at the final completion 
of thefe apocalyptic prophecies, all thofe who perfifl in 
adhering to the myfterious fuperftition of the apoftate 
church, and all who reje61 this proffered covenant of 
grace, or do not faithfully perform its conditions, will 
fuffer that fignal utter deftru6^i on, which in the figurative 
language of this book is reprefented by the being thrown 
into a fierce confuming fire, which it is impoffible 
to extinguifh, and which is denominated a fecond 
death. 

In the precepts and obligations of fuch a cove- 
nant as this there is no fuch thing as my fiery or ambi- 
guous obfcurity ; but every thing is clear, plain and in- 
telligible even to children and the moft illiterate. 
Wherever it is once known and accepted, there is no 
other religious truth to teach, no other to learn. In the 
church of Chrifl therefore there can be no need of fuch 
a diftin6l order of ecclefiaftics as the apoftate church hath 
inflituted in imitation of the civil government, and which 
we have feen prefigured in this book by the type of a 
beaft with horns like a lamb, and denominated the falfe 

proplieL 



C ] 



prophet. Public trangreffions indeed againll the terms of 
this covenant muft be cognizable to every human witnefs 
of our behaviour ; but the fincere^ faithful performance 
or non-performance of all its conditions is an account' 
that can be fettled only between God and every man's 
own confcience at the great day of retribution. On the 
contrary, the do61:rine of an atonement already made 
for all the fins and iniquities of men is calculated to 
enable every man, be his tranfgreffions ever fo heinous, 
by the affiftance of his prieft to balance that account 
from time to time during his prefent life ; and before 
his death to afcertain his important fentence on that day. 

This prefumptuous, but, as the teachers of the apoftafy 
call it, comfortable do61rine, which by one flroke of hier- 
archical legerdemain changes the pra61:ical, moral cove- 
nant of Chrill's Gofpel into a talifmanic prote61:ion againft 
the terrors of its own denunciations, is deduced, together 
with other fabulous, irrational and impious do6\rines 
refpe61ing the original guilt and fuppofed natural de- 
pravity of the human fpecies, from the ftory of Adam 
and Eve in paradife, which we read in the fecond chapter 
of Genefis, taken in its literal fenfe as an authentic hiftory 
of real fa6ls. But lince that ftory is introduced after a 
full account has been given of the formation of the earth 
itfelf and every thing it contains, in which the Deity is 
faid to have created mankind like all other anim.als male 
and female on the fixth day ; if we attend to that cir- 
cumftance, as well as to others which make part of the 
ftory itfelt and which are evidently allegorical, fuch as 

the 



C 3 



the fpeahng ferpent, the tree of Jmoxokdge, the tree of life, 
he ferpent's punifhment^ the enmity between the feed 
of the woman and the feed of the ferpent, the Cherubim 
, with a flaming fword, Sec. it cannot reafonably be confi- 
dered in any other lights, than as a mere dida6lic allegory 
or apologue^ introduced after the figurative manner of 
the Egyptians and of all the nations of the eaft^ to teach 
firft^ the natural fuperiority of the male over the female 
fex both in body and mind ; for which purpofe it is re- 
ferred to by Paul in his firfl Epiftle to Timothy^ as we 
refer in our difcourfes to the parables of fcripture^ and 
in common converfation even to the moral fables of pro- 
fane writers. Secondly, the clofe incorporation of the 
marriage union that firft link of the great focial chain 
which conne6ls the individual members of the fame fa- 
mily^ the different families of the fame nation, and the dif- 
ferent nations of the whole globe ; and thirdly, that hu- 
man happinefs or mifery depends upon our obedience 
or difobedience to the known commands of God and an 
implicit refignation to his revealed will. 

It is allowed indeed by the mofi: zealous advocates of 
the apofiate church, that if any part of this flory is alle- 
gorical, the whole muft be acknowledged to be an alle- 
gory. But they contend that every thing it contains is 
to be underftood literally ; and that even tJie ferpent is 
not a figurative emblem of the infinuating fedu6lion of 
female curiofity and the natural defire to gratify the fen* 
fual appetite ; but that a real evil, fpiritual being, com- 
monly denominated the Devil or Satan, had a6lually af- 

R fumed 



C ISO 3 



fumed the bodily form of a ferpent^, and was the feduc- 
tive author of the fall of our firfl parents and of the con- 
fequent guilt and depravity of the whole human race. 

In this defence of their favourite do6lrine. fo neceffary 
to the very exiftence of the whole fabric of their fuper- 
ftition, we eafiiy difcern the origin from whence all their 
principle do6lrines are derived^ viz. the mythology of 
the pagan idolaters. For there indeed we meet with 
powerful Deities of Hell as well as of Heaven ; and fre- 
quent transformations of both celeftial and infernal be- 
ings into man & almoft every other fpecies of terreftrial 
animals. But by what rational argument do they infer ? 
or in what page of divine revelation either in the Jew- 
ifh or Chriflian fcriptures do they find taught the poffi- 
bility of fuch monftrous^ chimerical confufions of the 
diitin6l modes of exiftence of different beings ? For 
argument fake however let us for a moment allow not 
only the pofTibility but the probability of fuch a pagan me- 
tamorphofis. Yet what will thefe advocates fay of the pu- 
iiifhment denounced againfl this feducing fpiritual being 
in ferpentine form ? Does it imply a punifhment appro- 
priate to the true nature of fuch a fpirit, only expreffed 
in terms of conformity to the natural fliape and circum^ 
fences of the reptile whofe form it had affumed ? Or is 
it to be underflood literally that fuch a being has a belly 
like terreflrial animals, and procreates offspring like 
them ? And that he was doomed from the date of this 
tranfa61ion to crawl upon that belly in our earth, licking 
up the dufl throughout the whole of his exiftence ? If 
there be a fmgle individual capable of ferioufly believing 

the 



C ] 

the affirmative of the latter queftion^ no abfurdity furely 
can be imagined too grofs for fuch irrational credulity. 
And if the fen ten ce palTed upon the ferpent is to be un- 
derftood according to the affirmative of the former quef- 
tion^, this part of the ftory is then evidently allegorical ; 
and therefore, by their own conceffion, the whole ftory 
can be confidered only as an inftru6live allegory or mo- 
ral apologue. And man muft be acknowledged to be at 
prefent, & always to havebeen, what he was firfi: created, 
an imperfedl, gradually-improving being both indivi- 
dually and in the aggregate ; and the mind or foul of 
every child born into the world, inftead of being natural- 
ly difpofed to evil, is like a piece of blank paper equally 
prepared to receive good or bad impreffions according 
as either are firft imprinted on it ; and acquires all its 
habits and inclinations^ except fuch as arife from the 
cravings of natural appetite necelTary to its exiflence, 
from example, precept, and the particular circumftances 
of the fituation in which it is placed. 

In thofe ages of bigotted ignorance which preceded 
the predi6led difunion of the apoftate church in the fix- 
teenth century, and perhaps even in later times, it would 
have been both ufelefs and dangerous to have called the 
public attention to the grofs impiety of the do61:rines 
which have been founded upon this fable, and to their 
inconfiftency with every idea of the almighty creator of 
the univerfe, which we derive either from our own rea- 
fon or from his divine revelation. But in that con- 
tinually inereafing illumination of the human intelle6i^ 
which is the certain^ neceffary effect of an univerfal dif- 

R 2 perfiOR 



C 3 



perfion of knowledge by the means of printing, and of 
that niutual intercourfe which navigation and commercial 
induftry have eftablifhed between all the nations of the 
globe^ the ftrongeft hold of habitual fuperilition is not 
ignorance and bigotry, but that amazing indifference to 
and feeming averfion from all theological. difcufTion^ 
which evidently pervades all the higher and even the 
middling orders of the people, and which can be owing 
only to the want of a real convi£lion of the truth and 
divine authority of the received religion. Yet fome 
few may perhaps be roufed to attend ferioufly to the 
proofs of that authority in favour of genuine Chriftianity 
with which the accomplifliment of the prophecies of the 
apocalypfe fupplies us. And furcly in our own country 
at leaft, where the wife fpirit of toleration that has fo long 
a6luated the civil government, difdains to let the fecular 
arm of the fiate become the inftrument of the apoftate 
church for executing the.purpofes of that fpirit of cruel 
fanguinary perfecution which is one of her peculiar, ef- 
fential chara61erifi:ics, no danger need be apprehended 
by any confcientious difciple of Jefus Chrifl for vindi- 
cating the rational, beneficial religion of his Gofpel 
againft tlie pagan fables of the fuperfiition of hisanta- 
gonifi;. 

The very idea that fuch a powerful, fpiritual being, as 
is vulgarly underflood by the Devil, exifis, is borrowed 
from the pagan idolaters of the eaft, who to accoifiit for 
the intermixture of what their ignorance deemed pofi- 
tive good and evil in the world, blafphemoufly and ab- ■ 
- furdly 



fiirdly conceited the exiftence of two oppofite powers 
countera6ling each other in the creation and government 
of the univerfe ; the one the benevolent author of all 
good, the other the malignant fource of all evil. Upon 
this idea adopted firft amongft the early Afiatic converts 
to Chriftianity by Manes & his difciples, the moral apo- 
logue of Paradife and the forbidden fruit has been con- 
verted into a literal hiftory;, in which this antagonifl of 
Omnipotence is reprefented as having created for himfelf 
a ferpent's body gifted with the faculty of fpeech ; and 
in that difguife by an artful application to the natural 
appetites and inexperience of our firft parents, to have 
totally fub verted that ftate of innocence, happinefs 
and immortality in which God is faid to have created 
them ; and reduced them and in them all their pofterity 
to a ftate of guilt and mifery ; guilt of fo heinous a kind 
as not only to deferve that they and their whole race 
Ihould become liable to death, like every other terreftrial 
animal, but alfo that after death, (though no words are 
to be found in the apologue itfelf to warrant fuch an in- 
terpretation, ) they fhould be doomed to an eternal life 
in the moll exquifite torments in hell-iire : and that all 
mankind mufl have undergone that dreadfully cruel pu-* 
nilhment, had not the Deity contrived a myfterious mode 
of fatisfying his own juftice by the incarnation and death 
of one third of himfelf, as fome fay, or, as others, of the 
moll exalted of all other celeftial beings, in order that 
fuch of the human family as implicitly believe and rely 
upon the infinite worth and efficacy of that facrifice of 
atonement and redemption, the nature and neceffity of 

which 



C ] 



which it is inipoffible for human reafon to comprehend^ 
might be faved from tlie endlefs torture of that Tartarus^ 
the very notion of which^ as it is no where fuggefted by 
the revelation either of the old covenant or the new, 
could be derived only from the fame fource of pagan 
mythology from whence the predicted apoftate church 
has deduced her whole fyflem of theological fuperfti- 
tion. 

To enable us to form fome judgment not only of the 
abfurdity but of the blafphemous impiety of this doclrine, 
let us fuppofe^ that amongft ourfelves a Father Ihould 
confine his child in an apartment ftored with a variety of 
viands peculiarly fuited to the tafte of children^ telling 
him that he might freely eat of any of them^ except one 
tempting but poifoned difh placed in the middle of the 
chamber ; but that he muft not eat of that, becaufe if he 
did, it w^ould certainly kill him ; that this Father alfo 
permitted a fervant of fuperior ikill and the mojfl infinu- 
ating cunning, and whofe aim was to caufe the infant's 
death, to have accefs to this apartment, and to exert his 
wtmolt artifice to perfuade him, that whatever reafon his , 
father might have for prohibiting his eating it, he well , 
knew it could do him no harm, but that on the con- 
trary, if he would only tafte it, he would himfelf be 
convinced that it was far more agreeable and invigo- 
/ rating than any food he had ever eaten ; and that in con- 
fequence of this infidious fervant's perfuafions the child 
had tailed the poifonous preparation and died. Is there 
any one, who in fuch a cafe would not indignantly ex- 

claiir^ 



C 3 



claim, that the Father himfelf had been guilty of the 
death of his own child ? Yet fince revelation teaches us 
that every other being in the univerfe is the creature of 
the one fupreme, almighty Deity, dependant upon and 
in every thing fubiervient to his will, if the Itory of the 
fall of man were literally true, whatever effe6ls it might 
have produced upon his nature and difpofition would 
have been as juftly imputable to his creator, as the death 
of the child in the cafe above fuppofed to the parent 
himfelf. And if the nature of man was depraved by his 
difobedience under fuch circumflances, his cafe is ex- 
a6]:ly the fame as if God had originally created him in 
that flate of depravity. Indeed if every man born into 
the world lince Adam's fall inherits his fuppofed depra- 
vity and guilt from his very birth, the laft muft be 
ftri6lly the cafe with all mankind except Adam and Eve,, 
becaufe the Deity, who is flill the fole creator of every 
human being, has willed the creation of all mankind, by 
defcent from fuch progenitors. Whatever therefore 
may be thought or rather faid of Adam himfelf, his whole 
race arealTuredly made by the univerfal creator, exa611y 
as their natural faculties and difpofitions are at their firft 
entrance into life. So that if thofe difpofitions are na- 
turally finful and evil, fince to an omnifcient Being every 
circumftance that would occur to our firft parents rnufl 
have been as well known at the moment he formed them^ 
as it was after their fall, he muft have created the mofl 
excellent of all the animals with which he hath Hocked 
this globe upon principles diametrically oppofite to 
thofe on which he formed every other part of the terref- 

trial 



L 3 



trial cteation, of all which^ and even of man himfelf Mo- 
fes alTures us^ that God Jaw every thing that he had 
made, and behold it was very good.'' So flatly contradic- 
tory is this fable^ upon which alone the do61:rine of atone- 
ment^ that fundamental tenet of the apoftate church is 
grounded^ to the plaineft di6lates both of reafon and re- 
velation ; at the fame time that it is mofl blafphemoufly 
injurious to the wifdpm^ power and goodnefs of the al- 
mighty maker of all things. 

But the moft pernicious quality of this fabulous mifre- 
prefentation of the efFeQs of the death of Jefus, is its di- 
' re6l tendency to countera61in the opinions and lives of 
men that moral influence^ which was the fole end of the 
promulgation of the new univerfal covenant of the Gof- 
pel. For inftead of inducing men to believ-e^ that the 
prophecies of revelation will at length be happily ful- 
filled in the moral reformation of all the nations of the 
earth, their being taught the impious doclrine of 
the original, natural depravity of mankind, tends to per- 
fuade them, that the world will always go on in much 
the fame unhappy career of vice and folly, as it does at 
prefent ; and that chriftianity is not intended a61ually 
to heal thofe who receive it from the vicious difeafes of 
their minds, which being not contra61:ed by themfelves 
but born with them and inherent in their very nature 
mufb continue in them fo long as men exifl ; but con- 
trived like a pagan amulet when applied with a proper 
degree of faith to fave them from that punifhment after 
death, which their coiifcience fuggefts to them is due to 

that 



that culpable immorality in which they find too much 
fenfaal gratification to refolve to relinquifii it. 

That men ^'^who have pleafure in unrighteoiifnefs/' 
as Paul expreffes it^ men who place their happinefs in 
that very immorality and intemperate abufe of fenfual 
enjoyments, which reafon and the religion of the Gof- 
pel condemn, fiiould gladly embrace a perfuafion that 
the important bufinefs of their falvation is already 
wrought for them, and that they have nothing to per- 
form in it themfelves ; and that therefore inftead of at- 
tending to and obeying the truth of the terms of the 
chriftian covenant, they fliould have fallen under fo 
Jirong a delufion, according to the fame apofile's pre- 
di6lion, as to believe the falfehood ?ir\di fables of the apof- 
tafy, is by no means wonderful, confidering all the cir- 
cumftances of the church from the reign of Confi:antine 
to the prefent age ; nor that the confequence of that 
belief fhould have been the perfeverance of people in 
general, though profeffmg themfelves chrifi;ians, in a 
courfe of life utterly incompatible with the plaineft 
prepepts of the Gofpel, For it is not the effe61s of our 
progenitor's eating the fruit of a tree that can deprave 
or vitiate our nature, but idolatrous fuperftition, the off- 
fpring of ignorance and our own inordinate paffions^ 
which infiead of furnilhing any motive to a conftant vir- 
tuous regulation of our lives and a61ions, aims only at 
palliating and by fome voluntary penalty or facrificial 
commutation atoning to heaven for thofe immoral in* 
dulgences or viciovi,s irregularities to which we are habi- 

S tuated;, 



/ 



C 138 ] 



tmted, and which therefore we wifh to retain ; but foi' 
which in our cooler moments of refie61:ion we are con- 
fcious we fland condemned both by God and our own 
reafon, 

Thefe two tenets^ of the trine divifion of the Godhead 
and of an atonement made for all fins and wickednefs by 
the death of Jefus Chrifi:^ are the grand effential;, funda- 
mental do61rines of the apoftate church of Rome^, defign- 
ated by the title of Myjiery, with which the forehead of 
her vifionary emblem is here branded. And as all the 
religious focieties of Europe, even thofe that have fepa- 
rated from her communion^ have adopted and ftill ad- 
here to thefe fame tenets, fheis with ftri<51; propriety de- 
nominated alfo the Mother of falfe religions and of all 
the idolatrous fuperftitions of every country within the 
limits of the weftern Roman empire. 

At the fight of this prophetic vifion of the exiflence 
of a church after the promulgation of the Gofpel cove^ 
nant difi.inguiflied by her myjierious, idolatrous do6lrineS;, 
and by her fanguinary perfecution of the faithful wit-, 
neffes of Jefus, the apofiile " wondered with great admi- 
ration/' And to remove the caufe of his admiration the 
angelic myfi:agogue tells him, he will explain to him 
the fecret hifi:ory of the apoftate church ; and of that ci* 
vil power which would uphold her'for fo long a period, 
without whofe patronage and fupport fhe could never 
have attained fuch extenfive wealth and power and in- 
fluence. 

The 



C ] 



The civil power^ fays he^ reprefented by the bead thou 
faweft afcend out of the fea or abyfs^ whofe decrees will 
be admired and obeyed by all the inhabitants of weftern 
Europe^ except a few confcientioiis chriflians^ who being 
noted by God will receive the reward of their virtuous 
fidelity at the day of judgment^ may be defcribed as an. 
empire which long governed the part of the world which 
is the obje6lof thele prophecies ; then became utterly 
extin61: ; and yet after that extin61ion^ by a combination 
of the feveral fucceeding civil powers to fupport 
the fame church which the preceding governors of 
that empire had eftablifhed throughout their do- 
minions, continued in that refpe^l to exift even after 
its extin6lion. Let the minds of the wife attend 
to the following intelligible explanation of the par- 
ticular civil power here typified. The feven heads 
of the beafi:, which fupports the emblem of the apo- 
fl;ate church, reprefent the civil power of the feven- 
hilled city Rome ; they typify alfo the feven different 
forms of government under which the Roman empire 
was adminiftered, viz. kings , confuls^ dictators, decemvirs, 
inilitary tribunes, emperors and femi- emperors, Oi thefe 
in the apofi:olic age the firfi; five were fallen or pafl; ; the 
fixthwas in exiftence; the feventh was to come; and 
when by the final divifion of the empire by Theodofius 
the great, it did afterwards appear, it continued but a 
fhort time before the weftern femi- empire was utterly 
extinguifiied : and thebeafl: having ten crowned horns, 
which arofe from out of the feventh extinguiftied head^, 
S % reprefents 



[140 ] 

feprefents the combined civil power of that polarchy of 
diftin61: fovereignties which being formed out of the 
ruins of the vveftern femi-empire of Rome^ and fucceed- 
inginto the place of the femi-emperor, conftitute the 
eighth form of government of the countries here alluded 
to. But by its now fpeedily approaching hoftility to the 
apoftate church that combination will be deftroyed^ and 
no further traces of any kind will remain of the civil 
power of the empire of Rome. Fcr, fays the angel^ the 
ten horns are types of ten dirtin6l kingdoms^ which 
though not exifting at prefent will receive their kingly- 
power at the fame time with that combination to fup- 
port the apoftafy which is typified by the body of the 
beaft, and reprefents their unanimous agreement to 
unite their power and authority for that purpofe. Thefe 
kingdoms therefore by their ePcablifhment of an anti- 
chriitian fuperftition will wage war with Jefus^ who will 
at length alTuredly prevail againft their utmofl efforts by 
means of thofe called, cJiofen, faithful difciples who ad- 
here to the religion of his Gofpel ; for he is the Chrifi, 
the anointed fovereign of the whole world. The waters 
in thefe vifions, where the emblem of the idolatrous 
church is feated^ reprefent the different people^ nations 
and languages where her fuperftition is adopted. And 
at length the rulers of the very fame ten kingdoms will 
deteft the apoftate church, which they before cherifhed 
and fupported ; will ftrip her of all her fplendid orna- 
ments and dignities ; devour her fubftance by a differ- 
ent application of her revenues ; and utterly deflroy 

her. 



[ 3 



her. For God bath decreed^, that they fliall continue 
to fupport her by this combination of their civil power 
only until the time of the accomplifliment of thefepre- 
di61:ions. And the woman which thou faweft is a type 
of that extenfive rehgious fociety or church which fhali 
guide and domineer over even the civil powers which 
fupport her. 

Every circumftance of thefe prophetic vifions thus ex- 
plained by the angel^ the world has feen faithfully ac* 
complifhed, except the predi6led fpoliation and deftruc- 
tion of this apoftate church, which remains to be fulfilled. 
Of the certainty of which, and alfo of God's continual 
providence over the affairs of men, & of the truth and 
divine authority of the covenant gracioufly offered them 
by the mediation of Jefus, fo exa61: a completion of all the 
previous prophecies of this book mufl furely give the 
mofl fatisfa6lory convi6lion to every ferious attentive 
mind. 

Of the fubfequent chapters of this important feries of 
revelations, which contain predictions of events ftill 
future, for reafons given above, it would be culpably 
prefumptuous to attempt to give a circumftantial expla- 
nation as to the exa6l manner in which thofe great 
events will take place. But having now been fo long 
converfant in the figurative, emblematic language of 
prophecy it cannot be difficult to us, and it muft be of 
confiderable utility, to form fome confiflent, rational 
ideas of their general meaning. 

Having 



Having in the vifion of the feven viais predi6led the 
fignal infliflions upon the apoftate church, which would 
gradually lead to her ultimate deftruftion, and in chapter 
xvii, repeatedly afTured us, that her fall will be effe6^ed 
by the vciy fame civil powers which have hitherto nou- 
rifhed and fupported her, in chapter xviii, the prophet 
introduces the vifion of a powerful angel defcending 
Irom heaven and fuperinducing a great mental illumi- 
nation throughout all thefe European nations, and pro- 
claiming aloud the a61ual fall of the idolatrous church of 
Conftantine, which under the emblematic name of the 
metropolis of the idolatrous empire of AfTyria is here re-- 
prefented like that ruined city to be no longer inhabited 
by rational beings, but to become a mere noifom.e re- 
ceptacle for every thing filthy and difguftful ; to which 
ruinous condition fhe is declared to be reduced, becaufe 
fhehas polluted all the nations of Europe and their ru- 
lei's w ith her idolatry and falfe religion ; and becaufe 
a numerous clafs of the people have maintained them- 
felves and grown rich by difpenfing for gain her falfe Sc 
fabulous doclrines, who are therefore juftly defcribed as 
merchants trafficking in the wares of her fuperftition. 

This denunciation of the utter dellru61ion of the apof- 
tate church is followed by another celeftial voice, which 
'highly delerves the moft ferious confideration of every 
virtuous, well-intending member of her communion, 
as it pathetically pre-exhorts them to feparate them- 
felves from her, that they may not remain contamina- 
ted by the guilt of her fuis of blafphemy and idolatry ; 

nor 



L 1-*^ ] 



nor participate in thofe calamities which mull befall her. 
For the time approaches when God will affuredly avenge 
thofe heinous iniquities, which have extended even to 
heaven. She will therefore be recompenfed as fhe has 
recompenfed the confcientious fervants of God; and fhe 
herfelf fhall drink deep of that bitter cup of perfecution, 
which Ihe has fo often filled for others. In proportion 
as fhe hath exalted herfelf and fared fumptuoufly. fhall 
fhe experience afHi^lion and grief; for though fhe flat- 
ters herfelf, that fhe fliall flill retain her fupreme pre-emi- 
r/ nence over all the religions of the world ; that fhe fhall 
never be dejerted by thofe ruling powers of the ftate with 
which fhe has been fo long inalliancC;, and fhall have no 
caufe to grieve ; yet diffolution, lamentation, a total 
deprivation of fuftenance, and certain utter deftru6lion 
as of a thing confumed in the fire fhall fuddenly over- 
take her all at once ; for it is the omnipotent Gcd himfelf 
who hath decreed this judgment upon her. 

In the following verfes, under the names of kings and 
merchants of the earth, thofe ftatefmen who have abufed 
the eftablifhed religion to political purpofes, and all the 
members of that prieflhood and its dependants, who 
have been enriched or maintained by it, are reprefented 
as bewailing their great lofs by her defoJation and 
ruin. Whilfton the contrary, this' vengeance infii61ed 
by God upon her is faid to be a caufe of rejoicing to the 
inhabitants of heaven and to the holy apoflles and pro- 
phets. And, the more ftrongly to confirm the certainty 
of her total; irrecoverable deftruflion, the predi61ion is 

repeated 



C ' ]. 

repeated under the emblem of a mighty angel cafting a 
great milftone into the fea and declaring, that with equal 
force & impetLiofity the apofiate church will be thrown 
down ; and that no religious nor feftive founds nor ce- 
remonies lhall ever be found in her any more : becaufe 
her hierarchs had been the great men of Europe, and all 
the nations had been deluded by her idolatrous fuper- 
liition ; and becaufe Ihe was guilty of the blood of pro- 
phets and faithful chriflians, and of all who were Hain in 
thofe religious wars and malfacres which fhe hath infti* 
gated. 

In chapter xix, general rejoicings both in heaven and 
earth are heard by the apoftle for the eternal deftrudion 
of that church, in w^hich the four beafis, the emblems of 
the twelve Jewdfh tribes, are reprefented as partaking 8c 
as joining with many different nations in worlhipping and 
praifing the one almighty fovereign of the univerfe, 
whofe overruling providence and power are difplayed fo 
confpicuoufly in thefe wonderful events ; and agreeing 
to rejoice and honour him for the commencement of the 
pradical prevalence of the true religion or church 
of Jefus Chriil, which is here typified by the figure of 
the Lamb's marriage; whofe wife, after the fall of the 
apoftate harlot and not before, is faid to have fitly pre- 
pared herfelf : and, infiead of the fumptuous, gaudy ap- 
parel of her antagonift, to be arrayed in clean, white, 
fine linen, a type of the virtuous morality and righ- 
teoufnefs of the fincere and faithful members of the new 
covenant of the Gofpeh 

Uppu 



upon this glorious change in the religious circum- 
llances of the countries to which thefe vifions as well as 
thofe of Daniel pecularily relate, and their converfion to 
rational, genuine chriftianity, the angel bids the apoftle 
write, that they are happy, who are deftined to witnefs 
, this extenfive inftitution of the true Church of Chrifl. 
And aflures him, that thefe predictions are^the true dic- 
tates of God. Struck with reverence for the glorious im- 
mediate melTenger of fo great and awful a Being, John 
fell proflrate to do him homage. But the vifionary an- 
gel earneftly forbade, him and told him to worftiip God 
alone, faying that he himfelf was only the fellow fervant 
of John and of his brethren the other prophets, whofe 
province it was to bear teftimony to the truth and divine 
authority of the miffion of Jefus. For, adds he, tli^ 
tejlunony of Jefus is the fpirit of prophecy ''-^ 

The fequel of this chapter appears to contain a vifion 
defcriptive of the diftinguifhed agent by whofe miniftry 
the providence of almighty God had decreed, that all 
thefe great events fliould be direCled in their accom- 
plifhment though invifibly to men. For upon the pro- 
phet's view being again opened into the heavens he be- 
holds the emblem of Jefus in his exalted character of the 
Chrifi, the anointed fovereign of the whole earth, feated 

upon 

f So says Moses also of the promised prophet of the new Covenant^ 
Deut. xviii, 21, 22. Other teachers on the contrary have afferted, 
that miracles and the historic evidence of the Fathers of the Church 
of Coustantine are the proper testimony of Jesus ! ! 

T 



r I 

upon a white horfe the type of victory, and defcribed as 
faithfully and truly judging and waging war with his ene- 
mies in righteoufnefs. His eyes are faid to refemble a 
flame of fire capable both of bringing to light and con- 
fuming his antagonifts ; and he is crowned with many 
crowns as being conftituted king of all nations ; & has a 
name written which no man underflood but himfelf " It has 
been before obferved that calling any perfon by a name 
of particular fignificationj denoted that the event fig- 
nified by it fhould take place in the time or under the 
authority of that perfon. So that fuch a name as this 
feems to denote that none but himfelf, to whom the Deity 
had communicated them, knew all thofe great events 
which he was deflined to accomplifh. Becaufe of the 
fanguinary ilfue of fome of them his vefture is faid to be 
dipped in blood. And as being the executive inftru- 
ment of the divine counfels, he is denominated the 
word of God. The armies that followed him appear by 
their clothing to reprefent thofe faithful difciples who 
adhered to him notwithftanding the general apoftafy : 
and they alfo are faid to be feated upon white horfes de- 
noting the certainty of their final vi6lory . To fhew that 
all thefe important predided events will be only the ne- 
cefTary confequences of the preaching his Gofpel to the 
world, neither he nor his armies are faid to have any 
other weapons except that fharp fword which proce-edeth 
out of his mouth ; but we are informed that the efficacy 
of that fingular weapon will be fo great, as to enable 
him to wound the nations which oppofe him, to difci- 
pline them with fevere infli6lions, and bring upon them 

thofe 



C 3 



thofe calamities which men afcribe to the vengeance and 
indignation of almighty .God ; and to inveft him with 
the glorious title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 
To typify the certainty of this his final vi61ory over his 
foes, an angel of the vifion invites all the birds of prey, 
which naturally frequent fields of battle^ and feed upon 
the carcafes of the flain^, to come and feaft upon the dead 
bodies of his vanquifhed enemies of ail defcriptions. 
And the apoftle faw in the vifion the united rulers of 
Europe with their civil powers combined to wage war 
againfl: Jefus & his faithful followers. The refult of which, 
was th^t both that combination of the civil power and 
the falfe teachers and hierarchies, which had fo long de- 
luded and impofed upon the credulity of the people, 
were utterly defl:royed ; and the other members of the 
apofi:ate church ceafed to exifl: as fuch^ through the ef- 
fe61s of his promulgated Gofpel, and difappeared as en- 
tirely as the flefli of dead carcafes devoured by birds of 
prey. 

The twentfeth chapter, under the emblematic vifion 
of an angel binding in chains and cafting into a deep 
dungeon the dragon or oldferpent, that had deceived thefe 
nations before, predi61s, that after this triumph of true 
chrifi;ianity according to the preceding vifions, all ido- 
latrous fuperfiition and falfe religion will be refirained 
and fupprelTed for the period of looo years within thofe 
countries, which are the fubje61s of the prophecies both 
of John and Daniel, at the end of which it will be per- 
mitted again to exert its efforts for a very fhort time. 

It 



It is this eftablifhment of the new covenaiU of the 
Gofpel in fo large a part of the earth as is inchided with- 
in the limits of the whole Roman empire, which is called 
in other parts of fcripture the coming of J ejus ChriJI> 
and which we pray for in the Lord's prayer, when we 
fay thy hingdom come. This therefore is the period, at 
which Paul affures us the fecond order of the refurrec- 
tion will take place ; irlien thofe that are Chriji's/' 
will be raifed from the dead as he himfelf the firfl fruits 
was raifed. To which number the prophetic vifions of 
Daniel add the prophets and other faithful fervants of 
God under the old covenant. Accordingly in this vifion 
John beheld the reftoration to life of thofe who had fuf- 
fered death for the teftimony they bore to Jefus and for 
their obedience to the word of God, and who had re- 
je61ed the falfe religion eitablilhed by the civil power & 
the hierarchy of the apoftate church ; and they lived 
with Chrift, as is taught alfo by Paul,t and reigned with 
him a thoufand years. But the reft of the dead, he in- 
forms us, were not raifed to life again until the end of 
the 1000 years. This, fays the ap.oftle, is the firft re- 
furre61ion" viz : after Chrift's, '' and happy are they 
who fhall partake of it, for on them the fecond death 
hath no p.ower, but they fhall be priefts of God and of 
Chrift, and fhall reign with him a thoufand years.'' This 
is the fame event, v. hich is predi61ed by Daniel, chapter 
11, under the name of the kingdom '/of the ftone 
cut out of the mountain without hands and again in 
chapter, vii, by.the titles '' of the kingdom of the fon of 

man/' 

t 1 Thcss.iv, ir. 



L ] 

ipan/' and of the faints of the mofi; high/' 

As the diftant nations of Afia^ Africa and America, and 
even of the northern parts of Europe are entirely defti- 
tute of our hilliorical knowledge, it feems natural to fup- 
pofe that the evident accomplilhment of all thefe pro-? 
phecies^ which is to produce the convi6^ion of the Eu- 
ropean nations and of the Jews, and to eftablilh the mo- 
ral covenant of Jefus Chrift from the Euphrates to the 
Atlantic, cannot make a fimilar impreffion upon the re- 
mote and ignorant nations of the globe, who muft there- 
fore llill retain their feveral idolatrous fuperftitions. 
Agreeably to fuch a fuppofition, at the end of the lOOQ 
years the fpirit of idolatry is reprefented as again at- 
tempting an exertion of its efforts even againft thofe 
countries that have been converted to true chriftianity ; 
and a numerous hoft of barbarous nations from every 
quarter of the globe are defcribed to be fo far deluded 
as to aifemble together from the moft diftant parts to 
wage war againft the profefTors of the only true religion 
here typically called the beloved city. The iffue of their 
attempts, we are told, will prove their own fignal over- 
throw. After which, perhaps in confequence of the 
convi61:ion produced upon thofe ignorant nations by fo 
ftriking a cataftrophe, idolatry will be utterly deftroyed 
in every part of the earth, as the apoftate church of the 
beaft and falfe prophet will have been before in weftern 
Europe, never to exift again. 

As the refurre^lion of the prophets and martyrs is to 

take 



take place at the converfion of thofe countries that were 
contained within the bounds of the old Roman empire^, 
fo Paul's third order or the general refurreclion of the 
dead will take place at the converfion of all the other 
nations of the earth, & the eftablifhment of the moral be- 
nevolent religion of the new covenant all over the globe. 
For this is the end, as Paul calls it, or comfummation of 
all thefe prophecies. Accordingly the entire deftru6lion 
of idolatrous fuperftition is immediately followed by a 
vifion reprefentiiig the indifcriminate refurre6lion of 
all the dead and the great day of judgment. In this 
vifion the prophet beheld a great white throne placed, 
perhaps in the clouds, and the judge feated upon 
it. Who that judge w^as we had no need to be informed, 
" having been taught from the earlieft preaching of the 
Gofpel, that God hath appointed a day in which he will 
judge the world in righteoufnefs by that man whom he 
hath ordained" even Jefus Chrift. It was Jefus therefore 
the mediator of the new covenant, whom John faw 
feated on the throne of judgment, and before whom all 
difference and dirtin6tion of rank and precedence amongft 
men, vanifhed entirely away. For in the figurative Ian-, 
guage of this book, the heaven and the earth, when ap- 
plied to mankind, denote the higher and low^er clafTes of 
the people. At this awful tribunal will all the dead be 
judged by the recorded conducl of their lives and by no 
other criterion. Audit is repeatedly afferted, that the 
fentence pafTed upon them will be according to their 
XL'orJcs ; and that all who are found unworthy of immor- 
tality will not live for ever in torments, but be utterly 

deftroyed 



C 3 



deftroyed and annihilated^ and thus fuffer the fecond 
death. That the figurative expreffion being cafl into the 
lake of fire, fignifies merely an annihilating deflru6lion, 
is evident from its being applied to the Beaft or combi- 
ned civil power ; to the apoftate church or fyftem of 
falfe religion ; to all idolatry under the emblem of the 
ferp^nt or Satan ; and^ here^ to death and the grave^ 
which, when mankind have attained fuch a perfe6l ma- 
turity ofwifdom and moral virtue as by living according 
to the terms of the new covenant to merit its pro- 
mifed reward of eternal life, being ufelefs will no longer 
exift ; and therefore then this " laji enemy will he de* 
J{royed/'\ as Paul tells the Corinthians, without doubt 
referring to the very prophecy we are now confidering. 

The prefent diftin6i:ion of the different orders of men 
having difappeared before the prefence of the enthroned 
judge^ in chapter xxi;, the apoftle relates a vifion pre- 
di61:ing the fituation of mankind upon this earth after 
the day ofjudgment. In that vifion he tells us, he be- 
held an entire new arrangement of human affairs and 
circumftances. And that the life of man was no more 
like a boifierous fea agitated with the florms and tem- 
pefts of war nor with the tumultuous raging billows of 
civil commotions and infurre6lions. But that he faw 
the heaven-defcended religion of the new covenant em- 
braced by the whole world now united to Jefus Chrifl 
like a bride fitly prepared for the marriage union with 
her hufband. In confequence of this perfeCt maturity 

of 

t \ Cor. XV; 2(3 



of wifdom and virtue^, to which the neceffary previous 
difcipline of divine providence had now brought the 
human fpecies^ it is proclaimed from heaven^, that God 
will from thenceforth manifeft his prefence amongfi; men^ 
who will continue to be his peculiar people, as he will 
be their only God; and that the conftant prote6lion 
of his omnipotent providence will caufe, that they lhall 
iio more experience the pangs of grief, wretchednefs or 
pain, all former circumftances that occafioned thenx 
having ceafed to exift. And the prophet heard a voice 
from Ood himfelf faying behold I make all things 
new and commanding hii^n to write the words of thefe 
prophetic vifions, for that ''they are faithful and true/* 
and declaring, that this will be the comfummation of his 
will refpeflingthe affairs of men, who is the beginning 
andendof aliexiftence, and who will freely impart eter- 
nal life to every one who earn eftly deiires it; that who- 
foever proves vi6lorious in the confii61s predi61ed in 
thefe emblematic vifions fhall inherit all thefe gracious 
promifes; and become like Jefus Chrift himfelf the 
Son of God, But that they who wanting a proper cou- 
rage and confidence in his providence have been pol- 
luted by any vicious immoralities, idolatries or the pro- 
pagation of falfehoods, will have their portion in that 
Utter dejftru6iion, which is the fecond death. 

After this folemn confirmation of the truth and cer- 
tainty of this feries of prophecies, the fame angel that 
hadihewn and explained to John the vifion of the Apof- 
tate church condiifis him to view^ the true celeflial 

edifice 



r 3 

edifice of the church of Chrifl or genuine religion of the 
new covenant now extended over the whole earth. In- 
ftead of the idolatry & unintelligible myftery that marked 
the former, this church was adorned with the glory of the 
one only God ; and the light of her do6lrine is compared 
to the fplendour of the moll precious ft one, and for its 
tranfparency to cryftal. The great lofty walls, with 
which this emblematic city is furrounded, are repre- 
fented as having three gates towards each of the four 
cardinal points of the compafs like the camp of the 
Ifraelites around the tabernacle in the wildernefs ; and 
at the twelve gates twelve angels infcribed with themames 
of the twelve tribes, denoting that the perfe61: religion of 
the new covenant will then comprehend both Jews and 
Gentiles in one common union, to which the old covenant 
made with the Jewifh nation was intended merely as an 
entrance. And the twelve apoflles of Jefus are recorded 
as the founders of this glorious and extenfive edifice. 
The faithful Jews of each tribe correfponding to the 
feveral gates are defcribed as ornaments of the value of 
pearls, whilfl the apoftolic founders are typified by the 
flill more valuable ornaments of various precious flones. 
The meafure of this church is given as a cube of 1 2,ooo 
furlongs. If indeed the furlong of the prophet were the 
fame with our Englifh furlong, the meafure here flated 
would be juft equal to the femi-diameter of the earth ; 
but fince, according to Bifhop Ufher's tables, 1 5,ooo 
Jewifh furlongs were above 2000 of our miles, the 
number twelve feems to be ufed here not with fi:ri6l 
numerical precifion, but in conformity to the numbers 
ufed in the other particulars of the vifion^ and to denote 

U the 



the whole diameter of the earth, indicating that it will in 
elude all the inhabitants of the globe, whofe fuperficial 
contents are properly expreffed by the cube of its dia- 
meter, which is the exa6l fize of a cube circumfcribed 
about the globe of the earth. In this univerfally ex- 
tended typical city the unfullied fpiendour of its ftreets 
indicates the perfe6l purity of all thofe who walk in 
them. But the prophets faw in it no particular temple, 
becaufe by the conflant manifeftation of theprefence of 
the Deity and of the mediator of the Gofpel covenant 
the whole earth would be a temple ; neither had this 
church any hierarchy to govern or to inftru61 it, for the 
minds of all men will then be thoroughly enlightened by 
the glory of God and Jefus Chrill, and all the nations of 
the earth and their governors will regulate their condu6l 
accordingly, & place their whole glory & honour in walk- 
ing by that light. The gates alfo ot this glorious edi- 
fice will be perpetually open ; for gates are fhut only for 
defence and fecurity in the obfcurity of night, but there 
will be no night or darknefs in that church. Yet nothing 
impure, impious or falfe will be permitted to enter into it. 

Death being now abolifhed amongft mankind, in the 
beginning of chapter xxii, under the emblems of a river 
of water of life ViYid trees of life bearing frefh crops of 
fruit 6very month, and affording in their fruit and leaves 
both food and medicine for the nations of the earth, we 
are taught, that the divine providence will liberally fup- 
ply all the inhabitants of the globe with nutriment and 
every thing neceffliry for preferving to them that im- 
mortality 



[ ISS ] 

mortality of which the Gofpel covenant afTures them ; 
fo that there will be no need of laying up in granaries 
or barns. Or perhaps the fenfe of the exprelTion ufed 
in the original may be^ no need of purchafing the ne- 
celTaries of life.f In that emblematic city will be efta- 
blifhed the throne ordained by God for Jefus his anoint- 
ed fovereign of the whole earthy whofe ferv^ants will all 
ferve him faithfully, will perfonally behold him ; and 
in their very countenance fhew tokens of their being his 
dutiful fervants. In that religious fociety nothing will 
be dark or obfcure ; fo that they will Hand in no need of 
the information to be deduced from the artificial inftruc- 
tion of human rhetoric, nor from the fuperior light of 
natural religion ; for their minds will be fully illumined 
by the clear revelation of the whole will of God, an 4 
they will continue in that bleffed Hate of profperity 
and happinefs ''for ever and ever J' 

It will perhaps occur to the reader, that if the earth 
in fuch an happily matured and perfe61: flate of its inha- 
bitants, inftead of being itfelf deftroyed according to 

the 

f The word Kamvads/u-a, adopted in our printed copies, is ia 
many manufcripts written Karafisz/ta, which is derive^ from a verb 
that fometiraes fignifies to depofit grain in ftorehoufes ; fometimes to 
depofit money as the price of a thing purchafed, as in Xen. Cyrop. P, » 
187? Edit. Hutch. 4to. Either of thefe fenfes feems to accord well 
with that of the preceding verfes. But the word curfe has no affinity 
either to what precedes or what follows ; and to make any apparent - * 

connexion, our tranflators have been forced to change the conjundion 
md^ which follows it, into h^t^ 

U 9. . 



[ 1^6 ] 



the commonly received though groundlefs opinion^ is 
to be ftill peopled with fucceffive generations of men, 
were none to be removed by death, as they are at pre- 
fent, the fcanty limits of the globe would foon be incapa- 
ble of containing them. But fmce Paul hath told us, that 
at that period, which is called the coming of Jefus, fuch j 
of his faithful followers as lhall be deemed worthy of • 
being afTociated to him, who fliall be then alive, will 
without dying undergo a change equivalent to that of 
thofe who {hall be then raifed from the dead ; and with 
them afcend to be with the Lord in a fuperior ilate of 
exiftence ; can it be thought too prefumptuous to infer 
by analogy, that fimilar tranflations of the moft aged 
may continually take place according as the circum- 
llances of the new generations fhall make them requi- 
fite? 

After this emblematic defcription of the virtue, happi- 
nefs and immortality of the human inhabitants of the 
earth under the influence of that covenant of which 
Jefus Chrift is the mediator, the angel alfures the apoftle, 
that thefe predidions are faithful and true ; and that 
'^''the Lord God of the holy prophets had fent his angel 
to fhew unto his fervants the things which mufi; fhortly be 
done/' For as the conqueft of Judea and the city of 
Jerufalem by Vefpafian was the commencement of the 
accomplilhment of this feries of hiftoric predictions, & 
took place fo few years after this revelation was imparted 
to the apoftle, it may be juftly faid to relate to things . 
Jhortlij to come to pafs, | 

Whether I 



C 3 

Whether thefe concluding words of the fixth verfe in- 
duce fome ignorant^ officious copyift^, by way of com- 
ment or reference, to infert from the epiftles to the feven 
churches (particularly from chap, iii, 11,) in the feventh 
Yex^e, BeJioId I come quickly , and to repeat it again in 
verfe 1 2, may perhaps admit of a queflion. But the 
incongruity of thofe expreffions and more efpecially 
the words of verfe is, with the perfon of the angel, who 
is here reprefented as the fpeaker ; the improbability 
that John fliould a fecond time have been betrayed into 
an a6l of adoration of the angel, and been a fecond time 
prohibited in the very fame words, and that Jelus him- 
felf fliould fuddenly commence fpeaker, to tell John, 
what John had before told us in the very firfi: fentence 
of this book ; and the obvious inconfiftency of the af- 
fertion, that his coming would take place foon, with the 
whole purport of this chain of prophecies, which teaches 
us that the events denominated his coming wotild not be 
accompliflied till after a lapfe of above eighteen centu- 
ries from the time of the communication of this 
revelation, lead one to fufpe61, that the few remaining 
verfes of this important fcripture have been tampered 
with and corrupted by the fame hand that interpolated 
the epiftles to the feven churches. This feems the more 
likely, becaufe it is v/ell known that many of the Fathers 
of the church eftablifhed by Conilantine had adopted 
a conceit that the end of the world was very near at hand • 
an idea which at different periods has operated power- 
fully upon ignorant, fanatic minds, notwithftanding the 
apoftle Paul in his fecond epiftle to the TheiTalonians, 

chapter 



chapter ll, earneftly endeavoured to correct that very 
error, into which fome of them had fallen, and affured 
them, that the day of Chrift's coming was not at handy 
nor could take place till after that apoftafy of which he 
had perfo»nally informed them, had been impioufly efta- 
bliflied by the mere human powder of the Roman empirej 
and w^hich he, who in many parts of his epiftles has fliewn 
himfelf to have read and underftood this book of the 
Apocalypfe, could not but know would continue to be 
maintained for more than l 260 yeai^ after the extin61ion 
of that empire in the weft. But whatever may be thought 
of the ten concluding verfes of this laft chapter, of the 
received copy of the Apocalypfe, fince their meaning is 
fufficiently intelligible, and fince they contain no ad- 
ditional predi61ion, we may reafonably here terminate 
our inveftigation of the meaning of this avowedly pro- 
phetic book, and confider the full weight of that irrefra- 
gable teftimony, which the a61:ual accomplifhment of its 
predidions fo far as the moft indifputable hiftoric evi- 
dence united with our own experience demonftrates it to 
us, bears to the certainty of the controlling providence 
of God over all hum.an aflTaii-s ; to the authenticity of the 
Apocalypfe itfelf ; and to the truth and divine autho- 
rity of the new covenant of the Gofpel, that gracious 
difpenfation which holds forth fuch infinitely great and 
powerful motives as are fufficient to influence the con- 
du6l of every rational creature who attends to them and 
is convinced of their divine authority. An effe6l which 
this facred fcripture alTures us they will at length uni- 
verfally produce. 



[ 1^^ J 



If the candid Theifl after this inveiligation remains ftill 
unconvinced of the certainty of the revelation of the 
will of the Deity by the mediation of Jefus Chrift^ it mull 
be owing to the author's inability to do juftice to the 
important fubje6l^ which he has at lafl 'prefumed parti- 
cularly & thoroughly though concifely^ to difciifs ; after 
having in vain attempted^ by his letter addrefTed to the 
prefent Bifhop of Wmxefter, to incite others of fuperior 
talents to undertake a work of fuch vaft confequence to 
the bell interefts of mankind ; and in vain waited above 
twenty years in the hope^ that fome rational/ confiftenf, 
warrantable explanation of this firft and moll initruclive 
of all the chriftian fcriptures would have been executed 
by fome abler pen. And as it is his mofi: earneft defire, 
that every unbeliever and every deluded member of the 
apoftate church may fpeedily receive that fatisfa61ory 
convi6iion of mind, refpe61ing the nature and divine au- 
thority of the chriftian covenant which he himfelf hath 
long fince derived from this prophetic fource, he can 
.now only add his wiflies, that his feeble endeavours 
may ftimulate thofe, who are bleffed with greater powers, 
to unite their exertions^ by giving the world a more 
linking elucidation of this too generally negle6led 
fcripture, to become the happy means of promoting the 
accomplifliment of the fixed decrees of divine provi- 
dence fbr the moral reformation and uninterrupted feli- 
city of the whole human race. 

To that large majority of the inhabitants cf Chriilen- 
dom, both Governors and fubje6ljs^ who are profelled 

hrerabers 



I 160 ] 

members of the feveral eftablifhed churches, and who 
have founded their religious perfuafion upon the myf- 
terious doBrines common to all thofe three divifions of 
the catholic apoftate church, which were effecled at the 
era of the Reformation, it furely cannot give areafonable 
caufe of offence to fuggeft how much it is both their 
dutj and their intereft ferioufly and impartially to ac- 
quaint themfelves with the real purport of thefe pro- 
phecies of both Paul and John, refpe6i:ing a general apof- 
tafy of the converts from paganifm to chriftianity to an 
impious, idolatrous, antichriftian fuperflition, unproduc- 
tive of moral virtue in the- generality of its profeffors, & 
which would continue profperous till near the coming* of 
Jefus Chrift. If his Gofpel be true, the prophecies re- 
quifite for a proper tellimony of that truth mufi: have 
been already accomplilhed, except fo far as they relate 
to events ftill future. The predi6led apoftafy therefore 
mull at this hour fubfift ; and be fupported by the civil 
power of all thofe countries that compofe the South- 
weftern part of Europe. Should the author of thefe 
pages have erred in his explanation of the apocalyptic 
vifions, ftill in order both to confute him and to juftify 
their own adherence to the religion eftablifhed by law, 
it will be indifpenfably necelTary for its advocates to pro- 
duce a more juft and fatisfa61:ory interpretation ; and 
to fhew the world in what other regular, confiftent order 
of events thefe prophecies have been fulfilled and are 
now daily accomplilhing. And whenever that fhall be 
performed, the author will readily and with due huf 
mility acknowledge and retraft his error. If that cannot 

be 



-be done, it furely behoves all the well-meaning, con- 
fcientious members of the eftabliflied churches and of 
every other religious fociety that has adopted the fame 
fundamental doctrines, to attend moft ferioufly to the 
fevere calamities fo awfully denounced againll them 
both in this prophetic book Sc by the apoftle Paul ; and 
to liften, while there is yet time, to that pathetic, heavenly 
admonition, Come out of her my people, that ye he Jiot 
partakers of her fins, <SC that ye receive not of her plagues'* 

■ *« ^)^^»^ — » 

To that, as yet, very fmall number of fincere believers 
in the truth and divine authority of the chrillian co- 
venant, who convinced of the Jlrong delufion, & grbfs er- 
roneous do6lrines of the adherents to the apoftafy of all 
denominations have feparated from their religious com- 
munion in obedience to that celeftial exhortation, it 
were fuperfluous to remind them^ that by avowing their 
acceptance of that gracious covenant they have engaged 
conllantly to ufe their unremitting fincere endeavours 
to regulate their difpofitions and the whole condu6l of 
their lives by the plain, fimple, benevolent, beneficent^ 
temperate, virtuous terms of that covenant. They know, 
that all their hopes of inheriting its precious pi-omifes 
either in the prefent or a future (late of exiftence depend 
entirely upon their faithful performance of that engage 
ment ; & that without it, the moft awful dellru6lion awaits 
them at the great day of final retribution : but that on 
the contrary, whatever may be their prefent lot, in con- 
fequence of a faithful, confcientious difcharge of their 

V duty 



r ] 



duty, fhould they die^ as he did, they will alfo live whh 
him ; fhould they fitter ^ they mil alfo reign with him, 
at the appearing of our Lord Jefus Chriji, which at the 
time he hath appointed he will moft alTuredly Jhew, who is 
the hlejjed and only potentate] the King of kings and Lord 
of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light, 
"which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath 
Jeen nor can fee, to whom be honour and power everlafling, 
^men, 

FINIS. 



WOOLMER, PEIJTTER, XXETER. 



ERRATA; 



Page 23, line 10, for contiunance, read continuance, 



44, 20, aver, ever. 

46, 4, miniilring, mlniftering* 

56, note 1. 7, reingty, reignty. 

59, 26, Greecian, Grecian. 

68, note 1, 3, Calandar, Calendar. 

72, 12, worlhiped, wordiipped. 

74, 6, Terubbable, Terubbabe|t 

77 9 note Lib, Simfon, Simpfon. 

89, 25, idolatory, idolatry. 

112, 29, agacity, iagapity. 

129, 2, U, th?. 



/ 



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A LETTER to Dr. Prieftley^s YOUNG MAN, with a 
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